Revelation 1:1 | Revelation Reveals Not Conceals

Revelation 1:1 | Revelation Reveals Not Conceals

Revelation 1:1
Revelation Reveals Not Conceals

I. Introduction

  1. The book of Revelation unfolds in seven broad movements, bracketed by an introduction and a conclusion. Below is an outline of these movements.
    1. Introduction and Message to Churches (1:1-3:2)
    2. Vision of God and the Lamb (4:1-5:14)
    3. Opening of the Seven Seals (6:1-8:1)
    4. Sounding of the Seven Trumpets (8:2-11:19)
    5. The People of God versus the Powers of Evil (12:1-14:20)
    6. Pouring Out of the Seven Bowls (15:1-16:21)
    7. Judgment of Babylon (17:1-19:5)
    8. God’s Ultimate Victory (19:6-22:5)
    9. Conclusion (22:6-21)[1]
  2. The question we are faced with is how to understand the structure and chronology of the book of Revelation.
    1. There are three main sets of judgments that either run sequentially over the seven-year tribulation or are layered, each adding a different aspect of the judgments.
    2. In the first scenario, the seven seals give way to another set of judgments known as the seven trumpets, which in turn give way to seven bowls of judgment.
      1. The seven trumpet and bowl judgments are part of the seventh seal.
      2. Because different angels are employed in carrying out the judgment, it argues that different events are being described, not identical ones.
    3. Some view the three series of judgments as layered upon one another rather than sequential.
      1. The logic being that, because of the similarities between the judgments, they must be the same. However, there are also unique aspects to them.
    4. I believe these judgments are sequential, and we will study Revelation as a sequential account of the latter-day judgment upon the world.
  3. Four methods of interpreting Revelation
    1. Idealist—This view regards the book as simply an allegory or a work of fiction that symbolizes God’s eventual triumph over evil.
      1. No chronological order is to be found, nor is this to be predictive of the events that will actually transpire.
    2. Preterist—This view sees the book of Revelation as a record of the conflicts of the early church against Judaism and Rome, with a final record of Christ’s victory.
      1. For this view to be considered possible, Revelation MUST have been written before AD 70.
      2. Those who hold to this view give the date of AD 65 to Revelation.
      3. There are many problems with this date, but the most difficult is that the overwhelming evidence among the early church writers is that it was written during the reign of Domitian, not Nero.
    3. Historicist—They see everything that is recorded not as a future account of what will take place but as a church history of what has taken place. They see revelation as already being fulfilled.
      1. The historicist finds in Revelation a record of the entirety of church history from apostolic times until the present.
    4. Futurist—This view sees the book of Revelation as a prophecy to be fulfilled in the last days of man’s history on earth.
      1. We approach the book as being inspired by God using a historical, grammatical, literal method of interpretation.
      2. When we come to symbolism, we realize that even symbolism has a literal meaning and should look to other scriptures to find it.
  4. Revelation has many allusions to the Old Testament.
    1. It contains more than 500 allusions to the Old Testament—278 of the 404 verses in Revelation (almost 70%) make some reference to the Old Testament.
  5. Written by John in about AD 95 to 96.
    1. The dating of Revelation is very important.
    2. Those who hold to a historical view of Revelation argue that it was written in the mid 60s.
    3. This is not the witness of the Church down through the ages.

      “Theodore Zahn, a highly respected New Testament scholar, emphasized that traditions consistently associate John’s exile on Patmos with his advanced age, describing Revelation as among the latest writings in the New Testament1. Gregory of Nyssa, a fourth-century church father, called Revelation ‘the last book of grace’ and noted that it was fittingly written by John, the last surviving apostle.2

      Both Eusebius and Clement of Alexandria maintained that John composed Revelation around 96 A.D. while on Patmos.1 Irenaeus provided clear and weighty testimony for the traditional dating at the end of Domitian’s reign (95–96), which Eusebius and Jerome confirmed.1 According to these patristic sources, all other New Testament books had already been written and circulated in church assemblies before John’s death, with his life providentially extended to provide final scriptural attestation.2

      The patristic consensus thus positioned Revelation as the culminating book of the New Testament canon, written by an aging John near the end of the first century—a view that emphasized both his apostolic authority and the book’s role as Scripture’s capstone.”[2]

II. v. 1 An unveiled message from heaven.

1 The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave Him to show His servants — things which must shortly take place. And He sent and signified it by His angel to His servant John[3]

  1. v. 1 The word “revelation” in Greek comes from the word apokalypsis (apocalypse)- meaning the unveiling.
    1. Not “apocrypha” (hidden).
  2. Revelation is an unveiling of what is to come to pass upon the world in the last days.
  3. It is an unveiling of things to come.
    1. It would seem obvious from this statement that the idea of this book was written so we could know.
    2. Yet, many have said that this book is incomprehensible to us today.
    3. When God wanted to keep information from His people, he simply sealed up the vision.

      Daniel 12:9 And he said, “Go your way, Daniel, for the words are closed up and sealed till the time of the end.”

      Isaiah 29:11 All the future events in this vision are like a sealed book to them. When you give it to those who can read, they will say, “We can’t read it because it is sealed.”

III. v. 1b These events will take place shortly.

1 The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave Him to show His servants–things which must shortly take place. And He sent and signified it by His angel to His servant John,

  1. Old Testament prophecy looked towards the end-time events as the last days.
    1. The New Testament clearly puts us in the last days and uses the language of “shortly,” “quickly,” and “is at hand” rather than looking to the latter days.
    2. When “latter days” is used, it refers to the time at hand.
    3. We are not heading towards the end, but we are running alongside the end.
  2. Until the Messiah came, we were heading towards the last days, but since Christ’s coming, Scripture refers to us as being in the last days.

    Acts 2:16-17 16 But this is what was spoken by the prophet Joel: 17 “And it shall come to pass in the last days, says God, That I will pour out of My Spirit on all flesh; Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, Your young men shall see visions, Your old men shall dream dreams.”

    Hebrews 1:1-2 1 God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets, 2 has in these last days spoken to us by His Son, whom He has appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the worlds;

    2 Peter 3:1-4 1 This second epistle, beloved, I now write unto you; in both which I stir up your pure minds by way of remembrance: 2 That ye may be mindful of the words which were spoken before by the holy prophets, and of the commandment of us the apostles of the Lord and Saviour: 3 Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts, 4 And saying, Where is the promise of his coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation.

  3. Two possible ways to understand the timing of shortly
    1. Understand it as meaning the immediacy of His coming.
      1. In other words, the events of the last days are about to happen.
    2. Understand it as a reference to quickness
      1. The Greek word for shortly is also quickly.

        “The adverb in the phrase ‘what must soon take place’ can refer to imminence (‘soon’) or the swiftness with which God will act (‘suddenly, without delay’)….It is eschatological (= end times) language intended to draw the reader into a sense of expectation and responsibility in order to recognize God’s hand in the events of history. It means that God has initiated the events of the last days, and we must ready ourselves for the end.”[4]

      2. The meaning that John may have been wanting to get across was not so much the idea that these events are going to happen immediately as much as the idea that when these things take place, they will happen with rapidity and quickness.
        1. When Jesus takes His Church out and begins judgment, nothing will be able to stop it.
        2. It will be like the tidal wave warning that you failed to heed.
        3. Let’s make sure that we are ready for the return of the Lord for us so that we don’t get caught up in the divine tidal wave of judgment.
    3. A further solution is to understand soon and speak of the certainty of the event.
      1. Daniel Wallace comments on the timing in a companion passage.

        “Rev 22:20 ναί, ἔρχομαι ταχύ Yes, I am coming quickly. This is a difficult text to assess. It may be that the stress is on the certainty of the coming or on the immediacy of the coming. But one’s view does not hinge on the futuristic present, but on the adverb ταχύ. The force of the sentence may then mean, “Whenever I come, I will come quickly,” in which case the stress is on the certainty of the coming (cf. Matt 28:8). Or, it may mean, “I am on my way and I intend to be there very soon.” If so, then the stress is on the immediacy of the coming.”[5]
    4. To me, it is evident, since 1900 years have elapsed, that John is not emphasizing the immediacy of the Lord’s coming.
      1. The coming of the Lord will be soon in the sense of CERTAIN and will be soon in the sense that when the prophecies of Revelation take place, it will be SUDDEN.
    5. The point, though, is that we must be ready at all times for these events to begin.

IV. Before we press on any further, I would like to explain how we will approach Revelation.

  1. We have noted that we believe it is speaking of events (chs 6-19) that have not yet occurred.
  2. We believe that it is speaking of a judgment that will impact the whole world like the judgment that fell upon the earth in the days of Noah.
  3. We will approach this as a revelation to the Church about events that will happen during the Great Tribulation, Second Coming, the millennial reign on earth, and the beginning of the eternal state in the new Jerusalem.
  4. We will approach this believing it speaks of a literal one-thousand-year reign.
  5. We will teach that the references to Israel as the ethnic people of God are His chosen people.
  6. We will teach a pretribulational rapture of the Church while understanding that Israel will suffer, and those who become believers during the tribulation will suffer.

V. We are dispensationalists.

  1. We believe Scripture should be interpreted according to a consistent, literal, historical, grammatical method.
  2. We believe that while the Jewish believers and Gentiles make up the Church, God has given specific promises to Israel that are distinct from the promises given to the Church.
  3. We are premillennial and pretribulational in our understanding of the Kingdom and the timing of the rapture.

VI. Literal, Historical, Grammatical Method of Interpretation

  1. There exists a difference of opinion concerning the Bible’s teachings on how the events of the last days will unfold.
  2. What is clear is that these teachings were given to help the followers of the Lord to know and understand (Dan 9:23b, 25a; Luke 19:42).

    Daniel 9:23 At the beginning of your supplications the command went out, and I have come to tell you, for you are greatly beloved; therefore consider the matter, and understand the vision:

    Daniel 9:25 “Know therefore and understand, That from the going forth of the command To restore and build Jerusalem Until Messiah the Prince, There shall be seven weeks and sixty-two weeks; The street shall be built again, and the wall, Even in troublesome times.”

    Luke 19:42 saying, “If you had known, even you, especially in this your day, the things that make for your peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes.”
    1. What lies at the heart of these differences is how one approaches the text.
    2. One’s hermeneutic will greatly influence one’s understanding of Scripture and one’s view of eschatology.
    3. The two main approaches to the last days’ prophecy are a literal or an allegorical method, with many using a combination of both for prophetic passages.
  3. A literal reading of Scripture is imperative to arrive at the meaning intended by the Lord.
    1. The Literal, Historical, Grammatical Method of Interpretation is defined below.
      1. It is the belief that words should be understood in their original meaning and context. It seeks to understand what Scripture meant to its original audience, avoiding conclusions that would only make sense to the modern reader or a particular bias.
    2. This method stands in distinction to the allegorical method, which looks to infuse spiritual meaning into many prophetic passages.
    3. Dwight Pentecost quotes from Ramm’s definition of allegory, which states, “the method of interpreting a literary text that regards the literal sense as the vehicle for secondary, more spiritual and more profound sense.”[6]
    4. In the allegorical method, the original words or events are diminished, while the interpreter’s significance is expanded.
      1. “There are no objective criteria by which we can determine a text’s allegorical meaning—it is purely subjective, leaving us with no knowable objective meaning.”[7]
      2. “The curse of the allegorical method is that it obscures the true meaning of the Word of God…The Bible treated allegorically becomes putty in the hand of the exegete. Different doctrinal systems could emerge within the framework of allegorical hermeneutics and no way would exist to determine which were the true.”[8]
      3. Philip Payne writing on the literary style of allegory, offers this sobering warning:

        “Allegorical interpretation, sometimes called allegorizing, is interpretation of texts that treats them as allegorical, whether or not their author intended them to be allegories. Allegorical interpretations even of true allegories can be misleading, either in incorrectly identifying the corresponding elements in the referent or in identifying corresponding elements where no correspondence was originally intended. Either allegorizing error usually detracts from the coherence of the message the author intended. Such unwarranted allegorizing was prevalent in the later church fathers and often ludicrous in gnostic circles.”[9]
  4. While some may bristle at this assessment of the allegorical method, one is hard-pressed to defend its inherent dangers.
  5. It seems reasonable that if God were going to use words that have a clear meaning and give them a different meaning, there would be ample instruction about breaking with the norms of language.
  6. The literal, historical, and grammatical method consistently recognizes the norms of language across all aspects of theology, while also acknowledging that symbolic literary methods are often employed by the writers.
  7. This historical-grammatical method fully appreciates these tools and recognizes that they were given to communicate literal truth through the artistry of language.
    1. Pentecost states, “That the literalistic approach does not blindly rule out figures of speech, symbols, allegories, and types; but if the nature of the sentence so demands it, readily yields to the second sense.”[10]
  8. Scripture itself teaches us how one should approach the Word of God.
    1. The way the New Testament uses Old Testament prophecies is a clear indication that it should be interpreted literally.

VII. The consistent, literal, historical, and grammatical method of interpreting Scripture will inevitably lead one to a premillennial view that acknowledges the different promises given to the Church and Israel.

  1. “All conservatives, whatever their eschatological persuasions, use literal or normal interpretation everywhere except eschatology. Floyd Hamilton, an amillennialist, acknowledges that ‘a literal interpretation of the Old Testament prophecies gives us just such a picture of an earthly reign of the Messiah as the premillennialist pictures.’ The amillennialist, of course, does not accept that picture of the future because he employs a different hermeneutic in the area of prophecy.”[11]

  2. For example:
    1. Believers will celebrate the literal fulfillment of the prophecy of Jesus’s first coming.
      1. Messiah born of a virgin.
      2. Pierced in the crucifixion.
      3. Casting of lots for clothes.
      4. Betrayed by a friend.
      5. Jesus riding into Jerusalem on a donkey.
      6. Born in Bethlehem.
    2. Yet, when Scripture speaks of this same Messiah ruling on earth, delivering Israel from judgment, or giving the physical descendants of Israel, an allegorical interpretation is adopted.
    3. In addition, the interpreter will seek to find fulfillment in the unfulfilled prophecies in the Church.
  3. Sometimes they will change their method from one verse to the next. Let me illustrate.
    1. Jesus rides into Jerusalem on a donkey.

      Zechariah 9:9 Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your King is coming to you; He is just and having salvation, Lowly and riding on a donkey, A colt, the foal of a donkey.

      Zechariah 9:10 I will cut off the chariot from Ephraim And the horse from Jerusalem; The battle bow shall be cut off. He shall speak peace to the nations; His dominion shall be ‘from sea to sea, And from the River to the ends of the earth.’
      1. v. 9 Jesus literally rode into Jerusalem on a donkey. No conservative Christian doubts this.
      2. v. 10 Jesus will destroy Israel’s enemies, bring peace to the nations, and have an earthly reign over all the earth.
        1. I would say that this is a prophecy that is still awaiting literal fulfillment.
    2. Others would say that this is a reference to Jesus overcoming a spiritual foe, and these words do not communicate a physical reign of Christ upon earth.
  4. Another example of inconsistent interpretation is Deuteronomy 4:25-31.

    25 When you beget children and grandchildren and have grown old in the land, and act corruptly and make a carved image in the form of anything, and do evil in the sight of the Lord your God to provoke Him to anger, 26 I call heaven and earth to witness against you this day, that you will soon utterly perish from the land which you cross over the Jordan to possess; you will not prolong your days in it, but will be utterly destroyed. 27 And the Lord will scatter you among the peoples, and you will be left few in number among the nations where the Lord will drive you. 28 And there you will serve gods, the work of men’s hands, wood and stone, which neither see nor hear nor eat nor smell. 29 But from there you will seek the Lord your God, and you will find Him if you seek Him with all your heart and with all your soul. 30 When you are in distress, and all these things come upon you in the latter days, when you turn to the Lord your God and obey His voice 31 (for the Lord your God is a merciful God), He will not forsake you nor destroy you, nor forget the covenant of your fathers which He swore to them.
    1. These verses provide an outline for the future of Israel.
      1. v. 25a Israel would live long in the land.
      2. v. 25b Israel would sin and practice idolatry
      3. v. 26a Israel would be removed from the land.
      4. v. 27 Israel would be exiled to other nations.
      5. v. 28 Israel would further engage in worshiping idols in these foreign lands
      6. v. 29 Israel will repent while in exile and turn to the Lord.
      7. v. 30 Days of distress will come in the latter days and turn to the Lord
      8. v. 31 Israel will not be forsaken or destroyed, but God will remember His covenant with Israel.
    2. Of these eight points, six have been fulfilled historically, and it leaves two points that are yet to be fulfilled.
      1. I believe that just as vv. 25-29 have been fulfilled literally, so we should expect that vv. 30-31 should be fulfilled literally.
      2. My eschatology or theology should come from Scripture and never drive the meaning of Scripture.
    3. Thomas Ice on Deuteronomy 4:25-31.

      “If the first five events have happened to Israel—and no evangelical interpreter would deny that they have—then it is clear from the text that the final events will also occur to the same people in the same way as the earlier events. This is most clear from the context. The Bible does not ‘change horses in midstream’ so that suddenly Israel, who has received the curses, is dropped out of the picture and the church takes over and receives the blessings. Despite various systems of the theology, the Bible nowhere teaches that God has forsaken Israel (cf. Rom. 11:1). Any reader of the text will have to admit that the same identity is referred to throughout the whole of the text under examination. If it is true that the same Israel is meant throughout the text, then the last three events have yet to be fulfilled for Israel in the same historical way in which the first five events are recognized by all to have taken place.”[12]
  5. Why change the method?
    1. What is in the text that indicates you should do this?
    2. Why change, especially when God has gone out of His way to say He is not done with Israel and that they can expect God not to forsake them?
    3. The only reason to change your method is that you have a theology driving your understanding rather than being consistent in your method of interpretation.
  6. So, what does this mean?
    1. God is not finished with Israel.
    2. Her promises can be expected to be fulfilled to them in the latter days in the same way God fulfilled first coming prophecies.
    3. “The ultimate proof that Old Testament prophecies should be taken literally and not spiritually (or allegorically) is that of its 113 messianic predictions that Christ has already fulfilled (see Payne, EBP, 665–68), all were fulfilled literally… If the predictions surrounding Christ’s first coming are to be taken literally, then by logical extension there is no justification for spiritualizing predictions about His second coming.”[13]

VIII. Closing

  1. We should read this letter with the expectation of having the future revealed to us.
  2. We should read knowing that these things can happen at any moment.
  3. We should read understanding that no matter how bad things may get, we have the hope that Jesus will come again.

[1] J. Scott Duvall and J. Daniel Hays, Grasping God’s Word: A Hands-On Approach to Reading, Interpreting, and Applying the Bible, 4th ed. (Grand Rapids: Zondervan Academic, 2020), “Guide to Revelation.”

[2] Logos response, 1Mal Couch, “Introductory Thoughts on Allegorical Interpretation and the Book of Revelation Part I,” Conservative Theological Journal (1997), 1:1:22. 2J. D. Douglas, ed., New Testament, New Commentary on the Whole Bible (Tyndale House Publishers, 1990).

[3] All Scripture references are taken from the NKJV, unless otherwise noted.

[4] Duvall and Hays, Grasping God’s Word, 467.

[5] Daniel Wallace, Greek Grammar beyond the Basics: An Exegetical Syntax of the New Testament (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1996), 536.

[6] Dwight Pentecost, Things to Come: A Study in Biblical Eschatology (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1964), 4. 

[7] Norman Geisler, Systematic Theology, Volume Four: Church, Last Things (Minneapolis: Bethany House Publishers, 2005), 424.

[8] Bernard Ramm, Protestant Biblical Interpretation: A Textbook of Hermeneutics, Third Revised Edition (Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 1970), 30–31.

[9] Philip Payne, “Allegory,” Evangelical Dictionary of Biblical Theology, Baker Reference Library (Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1996), 14.

[10] Pentecost, Things to Come, 10.

[11] Charles Ryrie, Basic Theology: A Popular Systematic Guide to Understanding Biblical Truth (Chicago: Moody Press, 1999), 517.

[12] Thomas Ice, “Has Bible Prophecy Already Been Fulfilled? (Part II: The Book of Revelation),” Conservative Theological Journal 4, no. 13 (2000): 322–323.

[13] Geisler, Systematic Theology, 426.

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