The book of revelation 

Introduction to the Book of Revelation

The method

I will start this chapter with an overview and explain how I intend to deal with our study of the book of Revelation so that you know what to expect. However, the first question to consider is, why study the book of Revelation? It is not only positioned as the last book in the Bible, but it was also the last book to be included in our present canon of sixty-six books as there were lengthy debates whether or not to even include it. As we study the book of Revelation, we need to understand its significance. There is a huge interest in this book simply because it talks about the end times, but there are many other important themes. People highlight certain events like the Rapture, the Antichrist, the Four Horsemen, and the Battle of Armageddon, yet the important, positive themes in this book outnumber the negative events.

For instance, it is the only book that contains a spiritual blessing to the reader, saying, “Blessed is he who reads and those who hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written in it; for the time is near” (Rev. 1:3). We see that there is a blessing in store for any person who decides to study the book of Revelation, because God wants to do something miraculous in your life. The second point is that it reveals Jesus in His glory. When He was on the earth, He was fully a man. Yes, He carried the anointing and the power of the Holy Spirit, but He was still a man. However, in the book of Revelation you do not see Jesus Christ as a man, you see Him as the King of kings and the Lord of lords, in all His majestic fullness and glory. Remember that the book of Revelation is a revelation of who Jesus Christ is. As we go through our study, you will encounter new concepts that will excite you, and I trust that you will learn many truths as we progress.

The third point is that the book is all about Jesus Christ and His bride. If you have accepted the Lord Jesus Christ as your Saviour, then you are part of the bride of Christ and are waiting for your bridegroom to come and fetch you. This book is not only about our relationship with Jesus Christ as our Lord and Saviour, but also as our bridegroom. The Church is the bride of Christ and as we get into the book you will see how this unfolds and be delighted to see what God has got in store for you as the bride. The next point concerns the Jews, because the Jewish nation has been blinded for a season so that the Gentiles could come into the kingdom. They rejected Jesus Christ because they have actually been made blind to the truth of who He is.

This is really significant for us because the book of Revelation speaks about the age of the Gentiles coming to an end. Thereafter, God will again focus all of His attention back on Israel. It is important that you understand that this is a theme in this book, because it is essential to know when the age of the Gentiles is coming to an end.

The fifth point is one of the most exciting ones for me, and I do not think many people grasp this, but the book of Revelation is about God’s relocation and Jesus’ inheritance. What I mean by that is that we know the throne of God has always been in heaven, but by the time we get to the end of the book of Revelation, God moves His throne onto the earth and gives Jesus Christ His own throne. This will have an immense impact on you, as part of the bride of Christ, because you will sit with Jesus Christ, reigning and ruling with Him. It is important that you understand this relocation of the throne from where God is now, to where He will be by the end of this book.

Some background to Bible study

I want to make a few general comments before we start our study. I am going to go through the book of Revelation slowly and will take time to discuss the content thoroughly to make sure that you understand everything that is happening each step of the way. I will also keep my explanations as simple as possible. However, in this chapter I need to use some terminology that might be new to many people. I am doing this because I want you to understand how theologians interpret the Bible, including the book of Revelation. There are some important rules regarding biblical studies that you must be aware of. Many people have asked me why the book of Revelation has so many different interpretations and diverse viewpoints. I will show you why that is, and I will also give you my opinion about how I think the book of Revelation should be interpreted. I will explain my argument and demonstrate why I have chosen this particular method, and I trust that this will explain my approach. I realise that not even my best friends always share my views on the book of Revelation, and I will explain why that is so.

The first concept that we need to understand is the word “hermeneutics,” which is a fancy word that basically means how you interpret Scripture. There are two ways that you can interpret the book of Revelation, one being that the book is figurative, that it is a vision containing a lot of pictures that do not mean much when you consider the text word for word. The other way is what we call a literal interpretation, that if it says that there is a tree standing there, then there is actually a tree standing there, not a depiction of a tree, but literally a tree. Your decision as to which route you will take in your study depends on your hermeneutic approach.

In other words, how you study the Bible will be determined by which view you hold. I want to make it clear from the outset that I hold the literal view, but I will show you why that is not a very popular view. By the time I am finished this chapter you will understand why I say that, and why I take the view that I do, interpreting the book of Revelation as literally as possible. Obviously, when you come to a statement comparing Jesus’ hair to snow or wool, we are not interpreting His hair as actually being made of snow or wool, these are normal metaphors used throughout the Bible, but wherever it says something practical, I interpret it as literally as possible.

The reason why most theologians have tended towards a figurative or pictorial interpretation in the past is easy to explain. Remember that in 70 A.D. Jerusalem was destroyed by the Romans, who deliberately scattered the Jews throughout their empire. From 70 A.D. up to 1948, for a period of 1 878 years, there was no nation of Israel. Most of the influential theologians who studied the Bible lived before 1948. In the 1800s and up to the mid- 1900s, many great people of God, such as Luther, Calvin, Charles Spurgeon, and others, lived during a time that the nation of Israel did not exist. This created a huge dilemma for them, because they had to deal with the term “Israel” in the Bible, especially where the New Testament and the book of Revelation refer to Israel.

What they did to overcome that problem was to treat that as a figurative reference, but in 1948, Israel became a nation. As a result of that, the whole method of interpretation had to change, because there is now actually a nation of Jews in a country called Israel. Since 1948, over the last 75 years, there have not been many theologians willing to deal with this topic and show us how to adapt our theology to include Israel. However, you can appreciate that this is major revision, and it has changed my whole approach to Bible study. The fact that there was previously no nation of Israel led to a teaching called “Replacement Theology.” This meant that every time you saw the word “Israel” in the New Testament, you would replace it with the word “church.” Since 1948, that teaching has become unscriptural, because there is now actually a nation of Israel, and we must therefore re-evaluate how we interpret the book of Revelation.

I want to digress slightly at this point and quickly show you how this evolved. When we speak about theology, there are a few major categories of theology. What I am about to say is simply additional material to give you some background to the major divisions of biblical theology which will illustrate how the dilemma arose. There are different categories of Bible study: “theology” is the study of the character of God; “angelology” is the study of angels; “biblical theology” is the study of the Bible and how it came about; “Christology” is the study of Jesus Christ and everything that He did; “ecclesiology” is the study of the Church of Jesus Christ; “eschatology” is what we are busy with, the study of what the Bible says about judgment, the final destiny of the soul and the end times; “hamartiology” is the study of sin; “pneumatology” is the study of the Holy Spirit; “soteriology” is the study of salvation; and “theological anthropology” is the study of the nature of humanity as it relates to God. I, together with many theologians living in this century, believe that there should be another category entitled “Israelology.” The study of the nation of Israel in the Bible should have its own category so that people no longer misinterpret the Bible. There are times when God is speaking only to the nation of Israel, and not to the Church, and this distinction will help us to understand the book of Revelation from a literal standpoint.

Views of the end times

Having said all that, I want us to look at eschatology, which as you now know, includes the study of the end times, and as we do so, we will come across events that are really exciting. Let us first look at the Millennium, the thousand years of peace after Jesus’ Second Coming (Rev. 20:2-7) and then we will consider the timing of the Tribulation. There are three views regarding the Millennium, the one that you choose will depend on whether you have a literal or figurative interpretation of the Bible. The three views of this period are described as Premillennial, Postmillennial, and Amillennial.

If you interpreted the Bible figuratively, as many people in the past did, you would have held the view that the Millennium had already come, and that the world was living in a great time of peace. Most theologians held the Amillennial view, and said that the world was enjoying a time of peace. That was the case until the 1900s when all hell broke loose with the World Wars. Since theologians have now moved away from that view, there are only two avenues of thought remaining. One view is the Postmillennial option, that is, Jesus Christ will come after the Millennium. The other is the Premillennial view, meaning that Jesus Christ will return before the Millennium.

If you take the more literal interpretation of the book of Revelation, then you will take a Premillennial view, which a lot of theologians are inclined towards, in other words, saying that virtually all of the things that we will study in the book of Revelation will take place before the Millennium, the thousand years of peace. However, if you share this view, then you are faced with three views regarding the Tribulation. If you tend towards a figurative view, you will go for the post-Tribulation interpretation, meaning that the Rapture will take place after the Tribulation. The second option is mid-Tribulation, with the Rapture taking place halfway through the Tribulation, and the third option, taking a literal view, is the pre-Tribulation interpretation. If you agree with the pre-Tribulation view, it means that you believe that the Church of Jesus Christ will be raptured before the Tribulation. It is really important to determine when the Church gets raptured, because that will decide how much of God’s wrath, that we, the Church, will experience. In fact, it will influence to what extent the Church will have to endure God’s judgments on this earth.

Now I want to encourage you, because my view is both Premillennial and pre-Tribulation, although some of my closest friends and fellow pastors do not believe in that combination. However, in the following chapters I am not going to give my opinions. I will take the book of Revelation and do a proper exegesis, meaning a verse-by-verse analysis, so that you have a full understanding. I will strive to back each of my arguments by the Word of God. In other words, if I find some statement in the book of Revelation, I will see if there are other Scriptures to back that argument, or which provide more information, because I think it is important that believers understand what the Bible says about this study.

We need to be confident that what we learn is not an opinion or someone’s idea. Ask yourself why God would give us a book in the Bible if we cannot understand it? I recognise the dilemma that the theologians had when the nation of Israel did not exist and they substituted the word “Church,” but I am going to prove my reasons for supporting a pre-Tribulation and a Premillennial view, and show you exactly what the Bible says about the Church of Jesus Christ and about the bride of Christ. I will go through the book of Revelation step by step and make it as simple and as clear as possible. I want to reiterate that this chapter is the only time that I needed to use terminology that sounds complicated in order to describe the different styles of biblical study. I believe that as we get into our study, we will learn some astonishing truths. This is not a book about fear, hardship, or punishment, it is a book about the revelation of Jesus Christ. It is amazing to see a full picture of our Saviour and what He is going to do for us.

Discard your preconceptions

I believe that the book of Revelation will change your life, and that, as we get into it, God will change everything that you might have had doubts or fears about. Shake off the fear about the end times that has been gripping so many believers, because I intend to show you that, right at the start, the Church of Jesus Christ is raptured and taken off this planet. But let me make something clear from the onset, the Church is not taken away because it is weak, crying, “Please God come, save us, we are desperate.” No, the Church of Jesus Christ is taken away because the power that the Church has acts as a restraint against Satan and his influence. It is only when this powerful restraint is removed that further events will unfold. I trust that, as we get into this book, you will learn some amazing facts and will gain understanding about what God wants for His church that you have never known before. I will try to help you to understand the meanings of the images depicted in John’s vision. You will also discover how the names used to refer to Jesus Christ change as He moves His focus from the Church to Israel.

However, as we start our study of this book, I want you to please come with an open mind. Put aside all your preconceived ideas, and do not come with the intention of trying to criticise, or of comparing it to what you have previously learnt. I have had to think deeply about what I have read and have had to change a lot of my own opinions. I have spent many hours in study and research, with input from many theologians who hold views ranging across the whole spectrum. I do not believe that any of us have the full picture, but it is always safe to base an argument on the Word of God. I know many of us have been taught certain concepts or ways of thinking about the events mentioned in the book of Revelation, but I want to encourage you and even plead with you to please keep an open mind while you consider these arguments.

I encourage you, as I do with all my teachings, to see if what I say lines up with the Word of God. I believe that God wants to bring us into the fullness of everything that we need to know as we approach the end times, and I trust that you will walk this exciting journey with me. I have tried to set the foundation for our study in this chapter, and I am sure that we will learn and uncover things that you have never been taught. I want to add that I have been studying the Word of God since the age of thirteen. I have studied for many hours for my various degrees, and I have spent many more hours reading and studying different books on a large variety of topics. Although I have studied the book of Revelation for many years, I must confess that I am still learning new insights and getting new revelations.
What I intend to do during this series is to go through the book slowly and methodically, while keeping it simple. I will always give you additional Scripture as backing for my arguments, but I do believe that the body of Christ needs to grasp the true meaning of this book and replace all old, faulty theology.

I trust that as we go on this journey, you will be right there with me. I felt a need to establish a firm foundation in this introduction as to how we will approach the study of this book because, when we get into it, we will be running flat out, and you will be learning a lot in every chapter. This is one of the most exciting and relevant books of all time. The book of Revelation, and especially the portion dealing with the Tribulation, is the most documented biblical theme in history. There are more Scriptures referring to the end times than to any other event in the entire Bible. As we start, I pray that the Holy Spirit will give you supernatural insight and help you to grasp what Jesus Christ wants you to know, and that He will help you to change any ideas or beliefs that you have that are not based on His Word.