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Understanding Revelation
When I was a young boy growing up
I used to send my friends letters in code. We
dreamed up elaborate encryptions for disguising our
messages back and forth so that nobody but us could
understand our communications. There were plenty of
spy kits kids could get with the same thing in
differing variations. I can still remember my secret
decoder ring, ordered from a coupon off a box of
breakfast cereal, it was used to translate coded
messages into something understandable. Nobody else
but us was allowed to know the real meanings of
those top secret communications. I remember fondly
the times when entire legions of imaginary troops
would be dispersed in life and death struggles based
on those communications with civilization as we know
it hanging by a thread. Those were fun times to be
sure. But what we need to take away from this is
that first, my friends on the other end had the key
to understanding my messages to them and vice versa.
We knew how to de-code the encrypted language. And
second, the coding of the message was for the
purpose of concealing our messages from certain
people. Those who did not know how to understand the
messages would be utterly baffled as to the meaning
and we could carry out our escapades of adventure
and conquest right under their noses without them
knowing anything about what was going on.
If we are going to have any hope whatsoever of
unraveling the mystery of the Revelation, we are
going to have to understand that it was written to
an audience that would know what the message was and
understand it the same as they did. God would no
more write a letter to His children they could not
understand than we would to our secret spy buddies
in the spy games of our youth. The conditions
surrounding the first readers of the Revelation were
far more serious than any of those around which we
as up and coming 007 spies had to contend with in
the days of our youth growing up.
The first readers of John's Revelation were engaged
in a life and death struggle against the forces of
evil who were committed to their annihilation.
Backing up and looking at this great book from a
distance reveals that it is obviously a book of
encouragement, perseverance and hope to an oppressed
people. the general theme of the book is the bad
guys lose and the good guys win. The book paints
very vivid and horrific pictures of the fate that
awaits the bad guys while likewise portrays the joy
and happiness that rewards the good guys. Time and
again, we are taken on a rollercoaster ride through
the book with numerous scenes of God's wrath on His
enemies and then His blessings and vengeful
protection of his faithful children who are assured
time and again that they will be victorious in the
end and their enemies will suffer His eternal wrath.
The type of language used to write the Revelation is
called "Apocalyptic". This word comes from the Greek
word apokalupto (ap-ok-al-oop'-to), and simply means
a "revealing" or to "reveal". This is where we get
the word "Revelation". The book of Revelation is
certainly not the only time God used this kind of
language. The books of Daniel, Zechariah and others
are instances where God used this kind of language
in order to "reveal" what He wished to communicate.
The words used in this kind of language have a
symbolic meaning in the minds of the readers of the
letter. For instance the word "Horn" is used in both
Revelation and Daniel. To the Jews, the horn was an
emblem of power (1 Kings 22:11). Samuel wrote, "and
he shall give strength unto his king, and exalt the
horn of his anointed" (1 Samuel 2:10). David wrote,
"But my horn shalt thou exalt like the horn of an
unicorn" (Psalms 92:10). The Jewish Christians who
had converted from Judaism would be familiar with
this and when they heard the word "horn" they would
associate it with "strength and power" in their
minds. So we see that the many words used as symbols
in the Revelation have significant meanings to the
people who would first read the letter. The symbolic
meaning of the word "horn" would not be easily known
to anybody who was not familiar with the Old
Testament scriptures so those reading the letter
would not be able to understand what it meant to the
first readers of the letter. To you and I, a horn
simply means the horn on some kind of animal like a
rhinoceros or a water buffalo. So if we are to
understand the Revelation, we must learn what the
symbolic language contained therein meant to a
particular group of the people who read the letter
in the first century.
Why was Revelation
written the way it was?
Language is symbolized in order to conceal it's
meaning to all but to whom it is intended. The
Christians at the time Revelation was written were
undergoing severe persecution from their enemies.
Just about everybody that was not a Christian was
their enemy. Their enemies were viciously brutal and
their lives hung in the balance on a daily basis. It
was a crime against the laws of the government under
which they lived to even be a Christian and the
penalty for transgressing this law was often death.
In the book of Revelation, the Christians are told
they will be victorious in the end and their enemies
will be crushed in defeat. They are also told by God
not to give in to their enemies and worship who they
want them to worship, but to worship God and only
God. The persecuting powers under which the
Christians were living wanted them to give up the
one true and living God and worship their false god.
Along comes a letter from one of the most beloved
leaders of the Christians telling them just the
opposite and in addition to this, it spells out in
detail the downfall, destruction and ultimate fate
of their enemies. One must ask, what would have been
the consequences faced by the Christians if this
letter fell into the hands of the authorities and
they could understand it? The persecution of the
Christians would have become worse and all copies of
the letter would have been denied to them. The
authorities who were oppressing the Christians don't
want them to have any hope. They wanted them to give
in and worship who they wanted them to worship.
John's message of hope, perseverance and victory
would have been rounded up and destroyed before it
was copied and distributed all across the known
world. One could only imagine how horrible it would
have been for a Christian to be found in possession
of such a letter.
The Revelation had to be copied and distributed
freely across the known world in order for it to be
effective. In order for this to happen, it's meaning
could not be easily understood by the oppressing
authorities of the time. So with that in mind, the
message of Revelation was "symbolized" or
"signified" as we see it in the very first verse of
the book so that its true message was revealed in
such a way that it could only be understood by those
to whom it was intended. How did God do this? By
using language that meant things only a Christian
with knowledge of and access to the rest of
scripture could possibly know.
Someone who was not a Christian, who had never
studied the scriptures, whether old or new, would
never understand the message of Revelation. To them
it would be a meaningless mass of nonsensical
writing that only confirmed in their minds that the
Christians were a bunch of loony fanatics who
followed after a mystical and hard to understand God
that posed no real threat to them and their way of
life. The Christians were given a message of hope,
perseverance and ultimate victory over their enemies
that only they could understand and that would not
bring any added persecution to them because of it.
How effective was
it?
The message of Revelation exists today. It was
copied and distributed throughout the known world as
directed by God. While many Christians were
slaughtered for their faithfulness, Christianity as
a whole survived and flourished and is still alive
and vibrant today and will, as we are taught in
scripture, continue to the end of time. History
teaches us that persecution of Christians was no by
no means limited to the first century. For thousands
of years, Christians have been slain for their
faithfulness by those who would force their way of
life on others. Even today in some of the Muslim
countries a proclamation of faith in the one true
and living God is the equivalent of a death
sentence.
Many denominations today have their own
understanding of Revelation and it becomes painfully
obvious rather quickly that they do not all agree.
The real meaning of the Revelation was purposefully
symbolic and hard to understand when it was written
and it's obviously hard today in view of all the
many interpretations of it from numerous writers of
all times, especially in modern times where we see
the emergence of the millennial beliefs and
teachings.
What we need to take away from this study is that
the Revelation was a message of hope, perseverance
and triumph, written to a specific group of people
at a specific time in history. The Revelation, being
intended for them, was successfully understood by
them. It was written in such a way that Jewish
Christians of the first century familiar with the
Old and New Testament scriptures would be able to
understand its meaning.
In Summary
So with that said, we are going to look at the
Revelation through the eyes of the first readers. We
are going to examine their lives and the conditions
under which they lived. We are going to discover and
learn what all the figurative language meant to them
through a thorough study of the rest of scripture
both Old Testament and New. We are, to the best of
our ability, going to learn how to look at John's
Apocalypse through their eyes and understand it how
they did. If we are to understand it correctly
today, we must realize that what it meant to them at
the time it was written is what it must mean to us
today.
David Hersey |