Understanding The Revelation of John

Understanding The Revelation of John

No grander book confronts the Bible student than the Revelation of John. Without doubt the Revelation is the most difficult book of inspiration to understand. Its perplexing message has given birth to varied responses by Bible students:

Many are so awed by its mysterious symbols that they avoid studying it.

Others display a fascinated obsession with its visions and consume all their study hours upon it.

Serious scholars have produced a wider range and variety of interpretations for this book than any other of the Bible.

It has often been the playground of religious eccentrics who abuse it to work out their own personal time table for future events and to find alleged proof of their human doctrines that could not be sustained by clear simple references.

Serious students of this challenging book are fully aware of the challenges to its proper interpretation. Many interpreters reach faulty conclusions from the predictions of the book because they tackle the symbolic visions apart from the context and without a sound method by which to decipher the whole book. The following useful principles of interpretation have greatly assist the author in his study of Revelation:

In seeking to understand this perplexing book, we must always remember that obscure passages must be interpreted in the light f the clear teachings of the Scripture, not vice versa.

Only by a thorough acquaintance with the prophetic portion of the Old Testament is one prepared to interpret and teach this volume.

Although John's message is saturated with allusions to the Old Testament, we must not force Old Testament meanings upon John's words. Let John apply his own meanings. The important question is not where John got his material, but what the Holy Spirit is saying though John. Learn the general use of a certain symbol and then look for John's application.

To properly understand the book, the student must seek to know the author, the conditions under which he wrote and his relation to those who received the message. Also, the conditions the recipients were facing is essential background material.

"We must try to feel as Christians felt when they saw their brethren torn by wild breasts of the amphitheater, or stand as living torches each in his pitchy tunic, on one ghastly night in Rome" (F. Farrar).

We must be reminded not to give to symbolic numbers a literal interpretation. Also the opposite is true, we must not give to a number a symbolic meaning that was intended to be understood literally.

"Similar prophecies of the same event must be carefully compared in order to elucidate more clearly the sense of the prediction" (T. H. Horne).

It is usual with the prophets to express the same thing in a great variety of ways. These different expressions of the same lesson amplify and clarify the lesson being set forth.

A chronological order of time is not always to be looked for in prophetic writings; for they frequently resume topics which they have formerly treated, after other subjects have intervened and discussed them yet more" (Horne).

As symbolic actions and prophetic visions greatly resemble parables, and were employed for the same purpose, i.e., more powerfully to instruct and gain the attention of the people, they must be interpreted in the same way as parables. Find the central truth which is being portrayed and let the details fit in the most natural way.

We need to be reminded not to pry curiously beyond what is expressly written, nor should we interpret as being fulfilled, prophecies which are yet future. Similarly if a prophecy is once certainly and completely fulfilled, we have no right to look for some additional fulfillment.

"Concerning commentaries, the views of the writer on Revelation are so utterly conflicting that the student soon finds himself driven to take from each whatever of useful suggestions he may find and then proceed independently in his search for the meaning and lesson of the book" (J. A. Smith).

In Revelation, we have an interpretation of history, not as man sees it, but as God sees it.

What a student must consider in each attempted interpretation is not whether every minute detail can be explained and every question answered, but whether the system has grasped the main points of the book and successfully explained them in a logical, internally harmonistically way that is consistent with the rest of the Scripture.

Remember that God alone has the final word in interpreting prophecy. He gave the vision, He knows the true answer (II Peter. 1:20).

We should approach the book with that humility of the spirit which is willing at times to frankly say, "I do not know" (D. W. Richardson).

Remember that the benefits are so many and the lessons so vital, that whether we ever master the interpretation of all its symbols, we will still be enriched beyond measure by our study.

The most amazing thing regarding the expositors of Revelation is the utter dogmatism with which they set forth their theory of interpretation and dismiss or attack the views of other wise men. Some interpreters have been most confident in their ignorance. The successful student will prayerfully study it with all diligence, being assured that the Giver of every perfect gift will bestow upon us the needed wisdom (Jas. 1:5). The suggestions of this paper will help us to handle aright this portion of God's Word (II Tim. 2:15).

Sincerely,

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