Introduction to the book of Revelation
Opinion about the Book
Many scholars and writers have given many opinions about
this book. We can’t see everybody’s opinions. Generally we can divide all
people’s opinion into 3 types.
1. Everything is Finished
In the early Christian era,
which means in the 1st century, Christians faced many persecutions during
the time of Roman Emperors Nero and Domition. To console those people only,
this book was written. Few people believe this. So, whatever is written in this
book they believe that it was already finished in the time of Apostle John. So,
those people tell that there is no more value for this book.
If their words were true, there is no reason to keep this
book in Bible. Already some books have been removed from the Bible, because
those books doesn’t have proper evidences. Those books are called appakruppa. In the same way this book may also belong to
the appakruppa and not to the Bible. So, this opinion is not true.
2. Historical Explanation
Some authors tell that this book explains from the time
of Apostle John to till date. For some extend we can accept this, because we
see that revelation 2 and 3rd
chapter talks about 7 churches. These 7 churches mentions about the 7 different
periods of times.
3.
A
book that focus on features
v
This
opinion is true. Why because the chapters of Revelation from 4 to 22 explains about
the features.
v
This
book explains about the glorified Jesus (Rev. 1:1 …The
Revelation of Jesus Christ…),
marriage of Lamb and millennial kingdom of God.
v
This
book teaches about what is going to happen to the churches.
v
We
can see in end of 3rd chapter about rapture.
Author
1)
Apostle John is the author of this book. To support this,we have 4 internal evidences in
the Bible itself.
1.
Rev.
1:1 “…His Servant John…”
2.
Rev.
4:1 “… After this I(John) looked. Here “I” refers the Apostle John.
3.
Rev.
9:1 “...I saw a star…”. Here also the
“I” refers the Apostle John.
4.
Rev.
22:8 “… and I John saw…”
But in reality God is the
original author of this book, which we can see in the Rev. 1:1 “…which
God gave unto him…”,
It’s God’s unveiling.
2)
Specialty
of the author
He was the only person witnessing the beginning of creation
(John 1:1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with
God, and the Word was God. )
Definition
- Revelation comes from the Greek word “Apokalupsis”, which means uncovering or unveiling.
- The book of revelation is uncovering Jesus Christ’s another face.
- The book reveals signs, visions and the persecution faced by the church by the end of the first century.
Book Information
- The book of Revelation is the last book from the Bible
- This book contains 22 chapters
- This book contains 404 verses
Apocalyptic Literature
Many people consider Revelation as a difficult
book to understand.Why do they get this idea? There are reasons for that. This
book uses many symbols, visions and signs. This style of literature is called
apocalyptic literature. This type of writing was very famous between 200AD and
200 BC. The first century people were
very familiar with this kind of apocalyptic literature. That’s why Jesus used
parables.
And he said unto them, Unto you it is given to
know the mystery of the kingdom of God: but unto them that are without, all
these things are done in parables:
That seeing they may see, and not perceive;
and hearing they may hear, and not understand; lest at any time they should be
converted, and their sins should be forgiven them.
Our Lord gives an opportunity to
understand the mystery of Revelation.
For whom is this book written ?
First this was
written to the church. Whoever belongs to church, in other words whoever accepts,
Christ as their personal savior, whoever believes the birth of Jesus Christ his crucification,
resurrection and his second coming. Anyone who doesnot belong to the church
which was established by Jesus Christ, this book also does not belong to them.
Why should we learn from this book ?
To get answer for the following
question
1. Why
do we need to worship our heavenly Father, our sovereign Lord Jesus Christ and
our counselor?
2. Holy
Spirit ……?
3. Why
do we need Salvation? Why is it important to us?
4. What
is our future if we accept Jesus Christ as our personal savior?
5. What
will happen to Satan at the end?
I believe at the end of this
study, God will reveal the answers for all these questions to us.
Apart from this, Jesus in this
book told “I am coming soon”, “time is near”, “time will delay no longer” In this way the Lord repeated 7
times about his coming in this book. So,
we should be ready to face the bridegroom in his second coming as a bride. So,
to prepare ourselves, we need awareness about this book.
What is the purpose of this book ?
We know that the
world is ruled by Satan. When did he started to rule the world?
Gen 3:1 Now the serpent was more
crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made.
Satan came like
serpent, He cheated by his delightful words. That time on words he brought sin
into this world and he got the dominion power over the world. How come he got
the dominion power?
God gave the
dominion power over the world to human
Gen 1:26, 28 Then God said, "Let us make man in our image,
after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the
heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping
thing that creeps on the earth."
So, Satan got
the dominion power over human which actually belongs to him.
Another incident is,
when Jesus was fasting, the Satan tempted him thrice. In that we will take the
third test.
Mathew 4:8,9 Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him
all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. And he said to him, "All these I will
give you, if you will fall down and worship me."
Here Satan shows to Jesus “the
Kingdom of the world and their glory” after satan tells this , Jesus denied it.
That means Jesus accepted that this world’s dominion power is given to
Satan.
Not only that,
1 John 5:19 We know that we are from God, and the whole
world lies in the power of the evil one.
So this book clearly tells us how God is going to defeat the Satan.
Revelation 20:2 And he seized the dragon, that ancient serpent, who is the devil
and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years
Revelation 20:10 and the devil who had deceived them was thrown into the lake of
fire and sulfur where the beast and the false prophet were, and they will be
tormented day and night forever and ever.
God will free his people from Satan after defeating him.
Open Book
The book of Daniel chapter 6,7 and 8 are closely related to the book of
Revelation. Whatever God revealed to Daniel, the same was revealed to John in
the book of Revelation.
Daniel 12:4 But you, Daniel, shut up
the words and seal the book, until the time of the end. Many shall run to and
fro, and knowledge shall increase."
Revelation 22:10 And he said to me, "Do not seal up the words of the prophecy
of this book, for the time is near”.
The Book of Daniel was written
around 600 year before Christ, but the book of Revelation was written at the last
decade of 1st century. Now we are meditating these words after 1900
years from the book was written.
So, many things happened between
600 B.C. and 2011 A.D. Because of God’s grace, now we have holy Bible in our
hands. From the Bible we can understand the mysteries of the book of Revelation.
Seven Blessings
·
God will *bless those who read
this book aloud. And those who hear and obey it. Rev1:3
· The *Lord will *bless everyone who dies for him. Rev14:13
· The *Lord says, ‘Listen, I will come as a thief comes. Happy is the
person who stays awake with his clothes ready.’ Rev 16:15
· Happy are the people whom God has called to the wedding meal of the
*Lamb. Rev 19:9
· Happy and holy are those whom God raises from death at this time. Rev
20:6
· Happy are all those who obey the words of *prophecy in this book. Rev
22:7
· Happy are those who wash their clothes clean. Rev 22:14
Alert
Revelation 22:18 I warn everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book:
if anyone adds to them, God will add to him the plagues described in this book.
Revelation 22:19 and if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this
prophecy, God will take away his share in the tree of life and in the holy
city, which are described in this book.
Connection between Revelation and other books
If we want to understand this
book we need the knowledge of few other books in the Bible. Especially the book of Daniel, Ezekiel, Zephaniah and
Zachariah.
Out of 404 verses around 278
verses are related to the Old Testament.
1.
Jesus is in the center
point of this book. In old testament Genesis 3:15 I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your
offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise
his heel."
2.
There was no Church in the
old testament time, it started only in
the new testament time.
Matthew 16:18 And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this
rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against
it.
Revelation explains to us
the features of the Churches.
3.
Revelation tells about
the resurrection of God’s people from
death or their transformations. 1 Thes 4,16 and 1 Cor. 15:51,52
Relation between Genesis and
Revelation
1
|
Tells about beginning of the
world
|
Tells about end of Age
|
2
|
Creation of the world
|
How old heaven and earth perishes.
|
3
|
The first confusion of Satan
|
The last confusion of Satan
|
4
|
The dominion power was given
to Human
|
Judgment on Human
|
5
|
How sin enter into the world
|
How the sin is going to be removed
from this world
|
6
|
Man was cursed by God
|
Man will be Blessed by God
|
7
|
How the death entered into
world (Gen 2:17)
|
Here after no death
|
8
|
Marriage of first Adam
|
Marriage of second Adam
|
9
|
Construction of Babylon
|
Destruction of Babylon
|
10
|
Gen. God gave fruit. If you
eat you will die (Gen 2:17)
|
Rev. 22:2,3 God will give
fruit. If we eat we will not die.
|
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