by Scottie Joines
The Book of Revelation is my favorite Book of the Bible.
Many people say that the book is hard to understand or scary. To me it is a
message of great hope. Many people find Revelation hard to understand because
they don't realize that it is a vision and visions need to be interpreted. It
is almost impossible to interpret the vision in Revelation without the key
which is in the Book of Daniel, chapters 2, 7, 8, 9, and 12.
To better understand the Book of Revelation, it is helpful to
know that it is the end of the human story, which is what the Bible is all
about. Beginning in Genesis 3:15 we see the birth of two seeds which is a
direct result of Adams disobedience to God and God's judgment on the people
involved, including the woman and satan. The seed of the woman (Jesus Christ
and His followers) and the seed of satan (evil or sin) will battle throughout
the Bible, growing stronger and stronger until they both become mature in the
Book of Revelation (Revelation 12:17) where we see the battle played out with
the use of extensive symbolism. Now, in Revelation, the little serpent is now a
full grown dragon and Jesus Christ has raised His army and returns to slay the
dragon, declare judgment upon him and the ones who were deceived into following
him and to set up His eternal Kingdom here on earth.
Keeping in mind the nature of God’s time system in relation
to ours also helps me to read this book.
We always assume that God is like us, that He speaks like us, He keeps
time like us, etc… I tend to think that God is the author of time so His time
is kairos time (seasonal…a Greek word that describes a season of time that may
or may not be chronological), whereas human time goes in order, minute after
minute, chronologically. Cronos. I
imagine that God’s time could go backward, forward, in a circle, turning in on
itself and spinning all at the same time.
Once knowing all of this, it is still a great challenge to
understand this book. First, the
messages to the churches are full of symbolism.
John encourages as well as admonishes the churches for their apparent
good and/or bad behavior. I really like
these parts of Revelation because we can use these messages as a blueprint for
or own lives to see if we qualify for the Kingdom. When John says “to the angel of the church”
at the beginning of each message he is
most likely referring to the pastors of each of the 7 churches that were operating
in that time. He begins each message
with a title for the One who says… Each time he introduces the One, he uses new
titles for the One, for example, “And to the angel of the assembly in Sardis,
write: These things says the One having the seven spirits of God, and the seven
stars:” These titles are key to what that church needs to remedy the problem
that He identifies.
The seven Spirits of God symbolizes the Holy Spirit and the
seven ministries of the Holy Spirit. The
seven stars are the seven angels of the churches. I believe he is saying that the pastors of
the churches need the Holy Spirit to accomplish God’s ministries. He goes on to say, “I know your works, that
you have the name that you live, and are dead. Be watching, and establish the
things left, which are about to die. For I have not found your works being
fulfilled before God. Then remember how you received and heard, and keep, and
repent. If, then, you do not watch, I will come upon you like a thief and you
will not at all know what hour I come upon you. “(Rev 3:1-3)
I believe the message here is this… If you don’t have the
Holy Spirit, you are as dead...and have dead works, they are not being
fulfilled. Then the advice or “secret
hint”… remember how you received and heard…and keep that. I believe he is talking about having the same
passion that we have when we first believed, enabling us to have a relationship
with the Holy Spirit, thus hearing God speak to tell us when the time is near
so He doesn’t come upon us as a surprise and find us without Him.
But this is all personal interpretation and subject to
varying opinions of course. It could
very well be that I am way off base, sometimes I find that I am. Each message is the same basic template, with
different elements.
John is then shown a scene that is occurring in Heaven. If you can imagine 2 parallel worlds, a
heavenly world, and an earthly world and imagine that they are somehow related
and will join as one someday, I think this is what I’m reading here. Since all earthly things are but a shadow and
copy of the heavenly things, I read this and imagine that each thing we are
shown from this vision of Heaven has an equal parallel occurrence in the
earthly realm. So, with that in mind, I
will list some symbols and what I think they represent here on earth.
Rev 1:18 keys of death and hades/ I have what you need to
overcome satan and judgment
Rev 5 Book with seven seals/everything that is meant to be
or was, symbol of power passed from the Fathers right hand to Jesus Christ. The first four seals: satan’s attack on the true church
The next three seals: martyrs, the sealing of the
bond-servants (the church), judgment
The two witnesses: Jews and Christians?
The woman: Israel
The red dragon, 3rd of stars: satan and the third
of angels that were cast down
Male child: Christ
Mystery, Babylon the Great, the Mother of the Harlots and of
the Abominations of the Earth: All the False religions
The scarlet beast that carries the false religions; satan
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