PREAMBLE
“Weird!” :”Exciting!” “Challenging!” “Crazy!” Some of the responses I got when I asked people what they thought of the Book of Revelation. It certainly sparks off intense reactions. But we first have to hear what the book actually says. So this is going to offer a whistle stop tour of all 22 chapters.
Who wrote it?
The author introduces himself like this: I, John, your brother who share with you in Jesus the persecution and the kingdom and the patient endurance, was on the island called Patmos because of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus. I was in the spirit on the Lord’s day, and I heard behind me a loud voice like a trumpet saying, ‘Write in a book what you see… (1.9-11)
John was traditionally seen as Jesus’ disciple John Son of Zebedee, who lived to a great old age. Maybe, but only if someone else wrote the gospel. Perhaps a Jerusalem disciple also called John wrote the gospel. (See my blog on John). But we don’t really know.
When was it written?
Early tradition says it was about 95 AD during the persecution under the emperor Domitian. John Robinson argues that it was written before the siege of Jerusalem in 70 AD. Anyway, it was in the first century. It is similar to the Jewish apocalypses that were written after destruction of Jerusalem.
What language was it written in? In bad Greek, with many Hebrew phrases. Quotations from the Old Testament prophets are littered throughout.
Is there anything like it in the rest of the New Testament?
Yes! Jesus spoke about the end of history and the coming judgement. In front of the high priest he announced, “you will see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of the Power”, and “coming with the clouds of heaven.” (Mark 14.62) See also Mark 13.
Paul talks about a visionary experience: I know a person in Christ who fourteen years ago was caught up to the third heaven—whether in the body or out of the body I do not know; God knows. And I know that such a person—whether in the body or out of the body I do not know; God knows— was caught up into Paradise and heard things that are not to be told, that no mortal is permitted to repeat. . (2 Corinthians 12.2-4)
How to read it.
Ignore the chapters! They were added a thousand years later by our own Archbishop of Canterbury, Stephen Langton. They interrupt the sequence of events.
And only read it if you are suffering and oppressed. The comfortable just will not understand it.
THE BOOK OF REVELATION
INTRODUCTION (1)
John is told to write to seven churches in Asia Minor, and has a vision of Jesus in glory: From his mouth came a sharp, two-edged sword, and his face was like the sun shining with full force.
7 LETTERS (2 & 3)
A message is given to the angels of each of the seven churches containing,
criticism, praise and promises. Some of the churches have suffered persecution, some are disregarding the letter from the Jerusalem apostles not to eat non-kosher meat and to avoid sexual immorality (Acts 15.28-29), some have become complacent.
WORSHIP IN HEAVEN (4& 5)
There in heaven there stood a throne…Around the throne are twenty-four thrones, and seated on the thrones are twenty-four elders (i.e. the 12 patriarchs of Israel and the 12 apostles of Jesus). Around the throne are four living creatures full of eyes… without ceasing they sing, ’Holy, holy, holy, the Lord God the Almighty, who was and is and is to come.’ Just like the vision in Isaiah 6, and Ezekiel 1.
But no one can open the scroll with 7 seals – until the Lion of Judah, the Lamb who has been slaughtered, with 7 horns and 7 eyes, enters and everyone worships him, singing,
for you were slaughtered and by your blood you ransomed for God
saints from every tribe and language and people and nation.
Note: Revelation is full of symbolism: 7 = perfection; 12 = Israel/Apostles; 6 = evil; horns = power; eyes = knowledge etc.)
7 SEALS (7.1.-8.5)
As the Lamb opens the seals one by one, God’s judgement comes on the world:
1 a white horse – to conquer
2 a red horse – for people to slaughter each other (i.e. civil war)
3 a black horse – bringing famine and steep rise in the price of wheat and barley
4 a pale green horse, ridden by Death – by sword, famine, plague and wild beasts
5 a cry for revenge by the martyred saints
6 a great earthquake, with the sun and moon darkened, the earth shaken.
Intermission
Four angels hold back the four winds. 144,000 are sealed, 12,000 from each of the 12 tribes; a great multitude from every nation worship God and the Lamb.
7 Silence in heaven for half an hour. The heavenly incense burner is thrown onto the earth bringing lightning, thunder and an earthquake.
7 TRUMPETS (8.6 – 11.20)
1 Hail and fire mixed with blood
2 A burning mountain thrown into the sea; a third becomes blood, a third of sea creatures die, a third of ships destroyed.
3 A star called ‘Wormwood” falls and poisons a third of all water and many die.
4 A third of the light of sun and moon fails.
5 The first woe. Monster locusts released from the bottomless pit and they torture those who don’t obey God for 5 months.
6 The second woe. 4 angels released form Persia with 200 million soldiers to kill a third of all people by the fiery, sulphurous breath of the horses.
Intermission (also the second woe)
7 thunders speak, but John is not permitted to write down what they say.
“There will be no more delay.”
John is given a scroll to eat, sweet in the mouth, bitter in the stomach (cf. Ezekiel 3), and a rod to measure the holy city. (Ezekiel 40-42).
2 olive trees/ lampstands/witnesses preach judgement and bring about drought and plagues, (like Elijah and Moses). See also Zechariah 5.
When they are killed the people rejoice, but after 3.5 days God brings them back to life and they ascend to heaven. A great earthquake kills 7,000.
7 Worship in heaven: ‘The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Messiah and he will reign for ever and ever.’ Lightning, thunder and heavy hail. (What happened to the third woe?)
DRAMA OF THE WOMAN, DRAGON, MICHAEL, TO BEASTS AND THE LAMB (12, 13)
A big drama, ideally filmed like part of the Star Wars series with lots of CGI!
The Woman clothed with the sun and with the moon under her feet, pregnant and in labour. (Israel? the Church? the Virgin Mary??)
The Great Red Dragon with 7 heads and 10 horns, aka Satan and the Devil. His tail swept down a third of the stars and he waited to devour the child when he was born. The woman gave birth to a son “who was to rule all the nations with a rod of iron” . The child was removed from the danger by God. The woman fled to the desert where she stayed for 3.5 years (1,260 days).
Michael the Archangel “War broke out in heaven, Michael and his angels fought agains the dragon .. and his angels … They were defeated and there was no longer any place for them in heaven.
The dragon pursues the woman and child, tried to drown them, but the ground opened and swallowed the flood. The dragon then went off to persecute the rest of her children, those who keep the commandments of God and hold the testimony of Jesus.
The Beast from the sea with 10 horns and 7 heads, one head had received a mortal wound. (Are these the first 7 Roman emperors, with Nero about to come back to life?) The Beast had great authority and everyone follows it. It spoke blasphemies for 3.5 years and conquered the saints.
The Beast from the earth with 10 horns and 7 heads and the dragon’s voice. It commanded everyone to worship the first beast – its number is 666. No one is allowed to buy or sell unless they have the mark of the Beast.
The Lamb stands on Mount Zion with the 144,000 who have his name and God’s name on their foreheads. It is these who have not defiled themselves with women, for they are virgins; these follow the Lamb wherever he goes.
JUDGEMENT FROM HEAVEN (14.6-20)
3 flying angels make 3 proclamations:
1 Fear God
2 Fallen is Babylon the great (i.e. Rome)
3. Worshippers of the beast will suffer God’s wrath, fire and sulphur f or ever.
The Son of Man and an angel swing their sickles and the earth is harvested, and blood flowed from the wine press, as high as a horse’s bridle, for a distance of about two hundred miles.
7 LAST PLAGUES (15.1 – 16.20)
Worship in heaven – the redeemed with harps sing the song of Moses and of the Lamb. Great and amazing are your deeds, Lord God the Almighty! Just and true are your ways, King of the nations! (15.3)
7 angels are given the 7 bowls of God’s wrath.
1 Painful sores on all worshippers of the beast
2 The sea becomes blood, all creatures die
3 Rivers and water become blood
They shed the blood of the saints, they deserve to drink blood (16.6)
4 Scorching sun
5 Earth is plunged into darkness – people gnaw their tongues in agony.
6 River Euphrates is dried up to prepare for an invasion from the east.
3 frog-like spirits assemble the kings for battle at Armageddon.
7 “It is done!” A violent earthquake, the great city split into 3 + great hailstones.
The plagues echo the plagues of Egypt in Exodus 7 – 10: sores, water turned into blood, darkness, frogs/frog-like spirits, locusts , hail.
THE FALL OF BABYLON (ROME?) (17.1 – 19.10)
One of the 7 angels showed John the great whore … a woman sitting on a scarlet beast that was full of blasphemous names … “Babylon the great, mother of whores and of earth’s abominations” … drunk with the blood of the saints. There are 7 kings, one is to come for only a little while. As for the beast that was and is not, it is an eighth but it belongs to the seven, and it goes to destruction. Plus 10 temporary kings.
Angel 1: Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great!
Angel 2: Come out of her, my people … her plagues will come in a single day (18.4,8)
Lament of the Merchants: “Alas, alas the great city, where all who had ships at sea grew rich by her wealth! For in one hour she has been laid waste.”
Angel 3: he threw a great millstone into the sea saying, With such violence Babylon the great city will be thrown down.
A great multitude in heaven shouted:‘Hallelujah!
Salvation and glory and power to our God, … He has judged the great whore … and he has avenged on her the blood of his servants.’
A FINAL CONFLICT & 1,000 YEAR REIGN OF CHRSIT (19.11 – 20.10)
The rider on a white horse called Faithful and True with a robe dipped in blood called The Word of God leads the armies of heaven.
An angel calls all the birds to the great supper of God, to eat the flesh of kings, ..the flesh of horses and their riders, both free and slave.. The beast and the false prophet are captured and thrown into the lake of fire. The dragon is bound for 1,000 years and thrown into the bottomless pit.
Those who have been beheaded for their testimony to Jesus come to life and reign with Christ for 1,000 years, The first resurrection.
After 1,000 years the dragon is released and gathers a countless army led by Gog and Magog (Ezekiel 38 – 29), to besiege the camp of the saints and the beloved city. Fire came down from heaven and consumed them. And the devil who had deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and sulphur. (20.9-10)
THE FINAL TRIUMPH OF LIFE (20.11 – 22.7)
I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened… Anyone whose name was not found written in the book of life was thrown into the lake of fire…. Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God … And the one who was seated on the throne said, ‘See, I am making all things new.’ ‘I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. … Those who conquer will inherit these things, and I will be their God and they will be my children. But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the polluted, the murderers, the fornicators, the sorcerers, the idolaters, and all liars, their place will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulphur, which is the second death.’
Note: This is a favourite passage in church. BUT they always leave out the last sentence!
An angel with the 7 last plagues showed John the holy city Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God. He measured the city with his rod, fifteen hundred miles; its length and width and height are equal…. I saw no temple in the city, for its temple is the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb. And the city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God is its light, and its lamp is the Lamb…. Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb through the middle of the street of the city. On either side of the river is the tree of life … and the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations.
EPILOGUE (22.8-21)
I warn everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: if anyone adds to them, God will add to that person the plagues described in this book; if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God will take away that person’s share in the tree of life and in the holy city …‘Surely I am coming soon.’ Amen. Come, Lord Jesus!