The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave unto him, to shew unto his servants things which must shortly come to pass; and he sent and signified it by his angel unto his servant John:
Who bare record of the word of God, and of the testimony of Jesus Christ, and of all things that he saw.
Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written therein: for the time is at hand. (Revelation 1:1-3)
Write the things which thou hast seen, and the things which are, and the things which shall be hereafter;(Revelation 1: 19)
And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them: and I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God, and which had not worshipped the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark upon their foreheads, or in their hands; and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years.1 (Revelation 20:4)
Three rules for the interpretation of Scripture are context, context and context. The Book of Revelation is no exception. We can learn from these few verses that: -
1. God gave the prophecy to Christ who signified it to John via his angel. That the prophecy was given by 'sign' means that it was revealed in symbolic form, so, in general, it is not to be interpreted in a literal sense.
2. The prophecy is given to Christ's servants, of whom John was one, not to the world at large. John was faithful to his charge and recorded all he heard and saw in his visions (except where expressly told not to - e.g. 10:4). He was also told to write 'the things which are' which sets the scene, so to speak, and is the subject of the first three chapters.
3. This prophecy tells the faithful what to expect in the future, starting shortly after the prophecy was given; therefore it is invalid to seek to apply interpretations that fall outside this timeframe. E.g. the 'war in heaven' of 12: 7 was not a pre-creation event.
4. The time period of 'the beast' and its 'image' fall into the period after the giving of the prophecy and before the judgment and redemption of those who had remained steadfast. Therefore the majority of the vision pertains to the last 1900 years or so plus the time yet remaining until Christ's return. Thus the information therein is for the edification of the faithful of all these generations.
5. The symbols used in the prophecy can be interpreted through knowledge of The Word of God. - E.g. 'beasts'2 and 'seas' for nations, 'heavens' for ruling powers, 'earth' for subject peoples etc.
6. The Book of Revelation is the last book of the Bible and a familiarity with the teaching of the other books of the Bible for the understanding of God's purpose with the world and its redemption is obviously a pre-requisite for fully understanding this remarkable book. A blessing is pronounced upon those who take the trouble to read, and understand and hold fast its teachings.
It is also as well to remember that, as in much of Scripture, the chapters of Revelation are not necessarily in chronological order. In particular; a summary covering a long period is often given, followed by a more detailed description of various aspects of the unfolding of events - and these also may pertain to different geographical areas at different times. Note also that the word 'then' can mean 'at that time', in a broad sense, rather than 'subsequently'.
[1] The thousand year rule of Christ and the saints on earth is one of the few instances when a time period in Revelation can, with confidence, be taken as literal. Biblical chronology yields approximately a 2000-year period from Adam to Abraham, 2000 years from Abraham to Christ and 2000 years from Christ to the present time. This amounts to a period of 6000 years of man's toil upon the earth and, on a day for a year basis (2 Peter.3:8), after the example of the work of creation, the redeemed can look forward to a thousand year Sabbath rest, There remains, then, a Sabbath-rest for the people of God; (Hebrews 4:9-NIV)
[2] The 'Four Beasts' of the King James' version (defined in Chapter five as representing the redeemed) are better rendered 'Living Creatures' (as in many later versions) to distinguish them from the beast and its image of later chapters. This latter word represents a dangerous wild beast. In the book of Daniel, the four nations which successively ruled the people of Israel are represented by such wild beasts, so there should be little difficulty in identifying dangerous beasts of the later chapters of Revelation with various manifestations and phases of Daniel's fourth great and terrible beast which was responsible for the destruction of Jerusalem in AD70 and the subsequent oppression of those ...which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.
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