3. Last week…
The revelation of Jesus Christ, from God to Jesus, and Jesus has given us the right to see it!

4. How Do I Read Revelation?
Week 2:
How Do I Read Revelation?
(Revelation 1:1-3)

5. 2 Hermeneutical Principles
#1 Identify the genre (What kind of book is this?)
Epistle (letter)
Prophecy
Only one in New Testament
Consists of both foretelling & forthtelling
Apocalyptic literature
apokalupsis- unveiling or a revealing

6. Apocalyptic literature
Eschatology- study of end times
The part of theology concerned with death, judgment, and the final destiny of the soul and of mankind
Events of the NT ushered in the ‘last days’
Not just about the future; it’s what we think about the future

7. 2 Hermeneutical Principles
#2 Intentionality
Interpretation based on the author’s intention of meaning and not the reader’s
“The text cannot mean what it never meant”
There are four different interpretative approaches on the overall timing…

8. 1) Preterist
(Meaning “past”) holds that Revelation deals with events that were fulfilled in John's time. It was written primarily to provide hope and comfort to the first century church persecuted by Rome
Partial preterism- many (not all) of the Bible's prophecies were fulfilled during the life and time of Jesus and the Early Church

9. 1) Preterist
Strength: it is more meaningful to the recipients who received this letter
Weaknesses:
It doesn't mean anything to us and subsequent readers
There are many parts of it left unfulfilled
Holds that all prophecy in the Bible is really history to us

10. 2) Historicist
Views Revelation as a survey of church history from the first century up to the Second Coming of Christ
Passages are identified with major historical people and events
Strength: there are many possible parallels between Revelation and things that have happened in Church history

11. 2) Historicist Weaknesses:
Has more meaning to other generations than the generation to which it was written
The parallels are often in the light of Western European church history
Divergence of opinion regarding what these symbols represent among historicists
Doesn’t adequately address prophecies

12. 3) Idealist
Events are neither past nor future, and don’t depict specific events but principles of spiritual war throughout the church age
Spiritual, symbolic, non-literal, allegorical
Strength: there is a conflict going on between God and Satan and that would have been relevant to the recipients of this book, as it is relevant to us today

13. 3) Idealist Weaknesses:
Everything is symbolic; seen as principles and not as prophecy
Failure to see futuristic aspects
Denies the correspondence between Revelation and all the other prophetic Scriptures in the OT and NT, it doesn't harmonize them

14. 4) Futurist
Most of Revelation awaits fulfillment in a period just before the Second Coming
A literal reading of prophecy—not a denial of the symbolism, but they represent real, literal things that are going to happen
View that most of us have grown up with, widely held by most modern evangelicals and many of the early church fathers

15. 4) Futurist
Strength: it fits the chronological outline that John himself gives us in Rev. 1:19
Weaknesses:
There are often many way-out interpretations among futurists
Often do not seek what was the initial message to the recipients of the book—if you miss that, you will misinterpret the rest

16. “…what must soon take place” (v. 1) “…the time is near” (v. 3)
Revelation 1:1
“…what must soon take place” (v. 1) “…the time is near” (v. 3)
Imminence
‘Imminent' is different than 'immediate' 'Immediate' is something that is going to happen there and then, ‘imminent’ tells us that we can expect it at any moment
Prophetic nature

17. “…to show what must soon take place”
Revelation 1:1
“…to show what must soon take place”
To show or make known; ‘sign’ or ‘symbol’
We are being told at the beginning, to read this as a book using symbolic language
Symbolic vs. Literal
John uses symbols to describe reality
The Bible is literature which means there are both literal and symbolic aspects to it

18. Read Revelation on three levels:
Read visually: try to picture what it is saying
Read biblically: pay close attention to what the Bible says about the symbols
Read the story: to understand Revelation you have to know the Bible’s own story

19. “The Word of God (OT) and the testimony of Jesus Christ”
Revelation 1:2
“The Word of God (OT) and the testimony of Jesus Christ”
Scripture’s great rule for the interpretation of prophecy:
2 Peter 1:20- “Above all, you must understand that no prophecy of Scripture came about by the prophet’s own interpretation of things.”

20. “The Word of God (OT) and the testimony of Jesus Christ”
Revelation 1:2
“The Word of God (OT) and the testimony of Jesus Christ”
Of its 404 verses, 278 contain references to the OT. Over half of this book depends upon understanding the relationship
The relationship is not due to quotations but in connections and references
The OT is the key that unlocks Revelation

21. Revelation 1:3 “Blessed is the one…” 3 classes blessed:
The one who reads the Revelation
Those who hear it
Those who take to heart what is written
The most blessed will be the most obedient— that runs right through the whole of Christian experience