The Book Of Revelation: A Study Outline

Please Note: This site is under construction and will change (for the better!) from week to week. I intend to add more commentary between the items of this very sketchy outline.

Goals

  1. To provide tools for interpreting Revelation as a living book speaking to the church through the ages.
  2. To de-emphasize the "future history, puzzle" approach and emphasize the "hear and obey" approach.
  3. To broaden the class's understanding of legitimate interpretations of Revelation.
  4. To put Revelation back into our devotional reading list.

References:

Introduction:

Read the entire book over, preferably at one setting, and look for SETTING, PURPOSE, and MAJOR THEMES.

This is the beginning, foundational activity which it seems most casual readers of the Bible fail to do, and such failure is the main reason many books seem confusing to these readers. When a house is built, it usually takes many days to excavate the basement, and level and build the foundation, and little "house" is seen; but once the foundation is built, the frame goes up quickly. Furthermore, the house can be no larger than the foundation, and the foundation largely determines the shape of the house that can be built thereon. A sincere effort should be made in the beginning of study, then, to get hold of these elements of the book, and, preferably, write them down. The setting may or may not be clear from the text...but if it is given there by the Holy Spirit, it must be important. The PURPOSE is often explicitly stated, but if not, can always be discovered by attending to the major THEMES of the book.

In considering themes, always start with the assumption that you can find a single major theme...ONE. This may not be true, but by trying to fit other things into this theme, you will discover those which just can't fit, and thereby find the other major themes. The most common error by far is to fail to identify the major themes, which are usually few, and instead to consider every new paragraph or publisher's section as a new theme. This will cause you to lose sight of the unity of the book, and often its purpose as well.

A method of forcing oneself to do the above work is to draw up a rough outline of the book. To do this, you will have to consider what themes are major, and which are minor or subheadings of the major themes. It will help you see how the themes relate to each other.

After you have done the above, and worked and sifted personally through the word of God, seeking to do your own best and patiently waiting upon the Spirit to instruct, you will have some ideas of what this word is meant to teach you. Some of these ideas may be wrong, but the Holy Spirit is able to correct as well as teach. Only after you have made some effort of your own should you go to a commentary.

Application of the approach to Revelation:

Setting: Read through the book. paying special attention to the beginning and the end, and find out:

  1. Who wrote this book.
  2. Did he write any other books of the Bible?
  3. What do you know of him from elsewhere in scripture?
  4. To whom is the book addressed?
  5. For whom is the book broadly intended?
  6. When was the book written?
  7. What do we know of the circumstances of the writer and the original hearers? (letters were read aloud by those who could to most, who couldn't.)

Purpose:

Again, read through the book, and look for direct or indirect statements of purpose. For example, the first line is obviously such a statement: "To show His servants what must soon take place." But why? More indirect passages help: v.3 says, "Blessed is the one who reads this...and those who hear it, and keep what is written in it, for the time is near." Also, after discovering the main themes, come back to this question and see if each theme doesn't imply a purpose, and vice versa. For example, in the letters to the seven churches, there are both warnings and encouragements about specific behaviors. This implies a purpose of "To teach the body of Christ how to live in ways pleasing to Him."

Also, remember II Tim 3:16, which is fundamental to understanding the purpose of each and every book of Scripture.

  1. What specific commands are addressed to either the reader, the churches, or believers in general?
  2. Why does God reveal to us things that are going on in heaven, that we will never see while on earth?
  3. Why does God use a mixture of symbolic and literal language?
  4. Why did God us the setting that he did, for this book? What can the setting tell us about possible purpose?

Themes:

Be willing to flex, change, and regroup on this section, as you grow in understanding of the book and of the Scriptures in general. Useful questions are:

  1. What exhortations keep recurring in the book?
  2. What symbols or images keep recurring?
  3. What numbers keep recurring?
  4. What persons or personalities keep recurring, and what are their characteristics?
  5. Do any specific events keep recurring?
  6. Do any of these things occur elsewhere in the Bible, and what do they symbolize or mean there?
  7. Make up a one sentence instruction or exhortation that you believe embodies the instruction of this book.

Discussion questions: Purpose

  1. What ideas come to mind when you think of Revelation?
  2. When do you feel inclined to read the Book of Revelation? To what personal conditions or feelings does it speak?
  3. What is the purpose of prophecy, generally? What about the book of Daniel? Consider Chapter 7 (4 beasts)...Daniel is given "interpretation" which does not allow him to identify them, only understand the outcome...victory for God's people.
  4. Vision of Ram and Goat in Ch 8: Explicit countries assigned, but Daniel is told to "seal it up" v. 26, because it concerns "distant future". (230 yrs). Also note that, though the vision was very specific, "I heard, but I did not understand". v 12:8-10. The wise will understand. Wasn't Daniel wise?
  5. What does Revelation say itself about its own purpose? "To show his servants what must soon take place" 1:1 1:3 "Blessed are those who read, hear, and "Heed or Keep" ("take to heart" is a paraphrase) At end of Revelation: 22:6,7 repeat almost identical words. Also vs. 10, 11, 16, 17 all emphasize the imminence of the events in the book.
  6. Does anyone in the class write poetry? or write fiction? Is anyone a "fine artist" (as opposed to commercial art)? Where does the artistry come from? What are you trying to do when you write poetry?

Ancient Middle eastern symbolism: One literary device which is easily lost on us, but which would be familiar to the ancients and which SHOULD be familiar to us readers of ancient writings (the Bible) is the symbolism of certain numbers. Numbers were associated with certain ideas, some more strongly than others.

Axes: Historical-Symbolical, Consecutive-parallel, OT-NT, Preterist-Futurist.

Structure: Progressive Parallelism: Progressive development of historical events, seen from increasingly higher perspectives. Each parallel account covers the same general period of time: The church age (the first coming to the second), but each iteration is from a progressively higher perspective, and emphasizes progressively later periods.

Seven sections: 3 show the struggle on earth, 4 show the spiritual background.

Jesus among the seven lampstands/seven letters.

The seven seals.

The seven trumpets.

The woman, child, dragon and his helpers.

The seven bowls of wrath.

The fall of the harlot and the beasts.

The fall of the dragon and consummation of history.

Jesus among the Lampstands: Chapters 1-3

The Letters to the Seven churches:

  1. To whom did Paul write the letter to the Corinthians? to the Ephesians? to the Thessalonians?
  2. So how do those letters pertain to us?
  3. To whom did Jesus send these seven letters? How do they pertain to us?
  4. Ephesus: an important seaport in the Roman province of Asia. The temple of Diana/Artemis was sacrosanct in the Mediterranean culture and became a center of banking, and drew loads of pilgrims swelling the city's coffers, especially in spring. Major crossroads, running to the north and south to Smyrna and Pergamum, and another to Laodicea.and Sardis. Paul started a church there early on.
  5. Smyrna:
  6. Pergamum:
  7. Thyatira:
  8. Sardis:
  9. Philadelphia:
  10. Laodicea:

The Seven Seals:  (covered by Bill Davidson)

The Seven Trumpets: Chapters 8-11

The seventh seal: the prayers of the saints and their "answer"

  1. What does silence in a populated place suggest?
  2. What might these "prayers of the saints" be? How did Jesus teach us to pray?
  3. How important are these prayers? Why do you think so?
  4. Is there any indication that these prayers are answered?
  5. what do thunder and lightening and earthquakes suggest?
  6. What type of transition occurs here? Are the Trumpets contained in the seventh seal? (and the bowls of wrath in the seventh trumpet?, like Russian nesting dolls?) Or do they follow the seventh seal, in which case the seal is the prayer and the incense only? Or, finally, are we starting the story over again from a slightly different perspective?
  7. What do Seals on a book suggest? What do Trumpets suggest?

The first trumpet: hail, fire and blood, destruction of land and plants

The Second Trumpet: destruction in and on the sea

The Third Trumpet: poisoning of the fresh waters.

The Fourth Trumpet: smiting of the sky.

The following Trumpets have to do specifically with mankind, and are caused by personal agents:

the Fifth Trumpet: torment from the Abyss

The Sixth Trumpet: Hordes from "outside"

Another interlude: The little book, measuring the Temple, and the Two Witnesses.

The Two Witnesses. Very difficult section, with a myriad of differing interpretations over the centuries. Again, we should avoid drawing specific historical conclusions from the most difficult passages. Let's stay with what is clear, and in the text. That is what God has given us.

The Seventh Trumpet:

Jesus and the Apostles on the Last Days (other NT references to the Second Coming:

Matthew 24: Jesus speaks of the future:

The Apostles on the End Times

I Thess 4:13-5:6: the Rapture

IIThes 2:1-12 : More on the second coming

John on the Antichrist:

1 Jn 2:18-23
1 Jn 4:1-3
2 Jn 7

Revelation, possibly, though the term is never used there, nor anywhere else in the Bible except these verses above..

Revelation on the Second Coming:

  1. Rev 14: 14-20
  2. How many harvests are there? who does the harvesting?
  3. Is there a prolonged period of time suggested, in any way, between these two harvests?
  4. Mt 25:31-46. Note that the judgment of the righteous and the unrighteous occurs at the same sitting of the Judge.

The tapestry seen from above: The big picture : Rev. 12-14

    the woman, the child, the dragon, the children.

  1. Who is the woman? Note the number 12. She gives birth to the one who will rule, and then to many others.
  2. Who is the dragon?
  3. Who is the child? Will rule the nations ; taken to God's throne.
  4. When is the dragon thrown down? How did his status change?
  5. 1260 days again! During which the woman is nourished.
  6. Note that it is the same woman before and after the birth.
  7. V. 10: the kingdom comes when satan is thrown down.
  8. Satan makes war against the Church.
  9. What is the difference between the woman and her children?
  10. What is the Wilderness? (we are to be in the world but not of it)
  1. The beast from the Sea:

The Lamb and the 144,000.

  1. The identity of these is difficult to determine. Again, many interpretations.
  2. Are they really all celibate men? Monks?
  3. the language before and after this section is highly symbolic. There seems no reason to suddenly become literal here.
  4. Could this be they the same group sealed between the 6th and 7th seals?
  5. As 12 X 12 x 1000, do they stand for all God's people? (In this idea, the "defiling with women " refers to harlotry, symbolic throughout the Scriptures as unfaithfulness to God.)
  6. This seems, again, to be the Reassuring Interlude which we have seen before when things look dark. It may seem that Satan and his minions are triumphing, but those who have eyes to see see that Jesus is still on the holy hill with all his people.
  7. Three angels announce:

The two-fold reaping of the earth

The Seven Bowls of Wrath: Rev 16.

Mystery: Babylon: Rev 17-18

The Millennium: Chapter 20

The Consummation of Redemptive History: Rev. 20-22