WHY WE SHOULD STUDY THE BOOK OF REVELATION
The book of Revelation is one the most unread, unstudied, most misunderstood, and most twisted out of context, books of the Bible. So why is it one the most unread book? The main reason seems to stem from fear of the book. This fear is driven from the idea that the book is one which cannot be understood. That it is a book written in code that cannot be decoded. When you add to these issues a lack of God’s knowledge, you come up with someone who is not only ignorant, but also someone who lacks confidence. These two combinations can be very dangerous and leads to not only the misunderstanding but also to the twisting of the scriptures. The twisting of the scriptures can be done for a couple of different reasons, one: because they have a misunderstanding, or two: They must twist them in order for the scriptures to “fit” their own personal thoughts/believes. Some have in their mind that each person is to read the Bible and come to their own interpretation.
Here are the problems with the statements above. First of all, we all have the means t...
Much of Revelation is the source of debate. Many passages are symbolic in nature, and the exact meaning of the symbols can be difficult to determine. Some passages can be interpreted in various ways. The identity of the Four Horsemen, the 144,000, and Babylon the Great in particular are points of contention. Nevertheless, proper hermeneutics and careful study can illuminate these difficult passages.
“Nothing in biology makes sense except in the light of evolution”, Theodosius Dobzhansky. Evolution is a key unifying principle in biology. Judgment Day: Intelligent Design on Trial is NOVA documentary on the case of Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School District. In November 2004, the local school board in the small town of Dover, Pennsylvania ordered their high school science teachers to read a statement about Intelligent Design to biology students. Intelligent Design is a statement that suggested an alternative information and explanation to Darwin's theory of evolution. Life is too complex to have evolved naturally and therefore must have been designed by an intelligently, which was the main point of Intelligent design. The teachers refused to follow the statement and alarmed parents disagreed with intelligent design. Suddenly, the small town of Dover was torn apart by controversy. NOVA documentary is the historic six week trial, Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School
The Christian View of Revelation Revelation by definition is the disclosure of facts or theories through religious events that have previously remained hidden. For Christians revelation is mainly associated with the revelation of God to his people throughout the ages. God has made himself known to us but we have to consider that he has also presented himself to us, with the choice up to us whether we accept his love. God has not pressed Himself up us.
It is also believed that wealth should be non-existent. This is only possible if cl...
The book of Revelation gives us our greatest insight to the use of God's name in the New Testament. The imagery of the book of Revelation is very similar to the prophetic books of the Old Testament where the name was used frequently. But even more, the book of Revelation can be used to disprove most theories as to why the divine name was not used in the NT. The book uses many references to God's name. These are not just some kind of reference to God's character, since we are told this name is written on something on a number of occasions. You can not write someone's character on a forehead. These must be references to a literal name.
Thompson, Leonard R. "Recent Theories about the Social Setting of the Book of Revelation." In The Book of Revelation: Apocalypse and Empire, 202-210. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 1990.
No part of the Bible and its interpretation is more controversial than the book of Revelation. The book of Revelation is the last profound book in the New Testament. It conveys the significant purpose of Christianity by describing God’s plan for the world and his final judgment of the people by reinforcing the importance of faith and the concept of Christianity as a whole. This book was written by John in 95 or 96 AD. What is, what has been, and what is to come is the central focus of the content in Revelation.
According to the American Heritage dictionary, revelation is “an act of revealing” or “a dramatic disclosure “(American Heritage dictionary). The current definition given does not provide any real information, if the word reveal is not
For example, it says “And I saw the dead, small and great, standing before God, and books were opened. And another book was opened, which is the Book of Life. And the dead were judged according to their words, by the things which were written in the books.” (Revelation 20:12), this is a powerful image, shown where all human beings are standing to be judged before God. Also, it is hard to imagine the powerful symbol of the Book of Life being opened, which has in it all the names of those who are saved. In addition, it states “But the cowardly, unbelieving, abominable, murderers, sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars shall have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death.” (Revelation 21:8), another powerful image showing that all the unrepentant sinners (quite a list of sins), will burn in a lake of fire and brimstone forever. The lake of fire and brimstone (a symbol for hell), is powerful and, when read, evokes a feeling of fear and of suffering beyond imagination. In addition, in chapter 19 verse 14 of Revelation it states “…the armies in heaven, clothed in fine linen, white and clean, followed Him on white horses,” where the fine linen being white and clean symbolizes purity and cleanliness. White has almost always been a symbol of purity, and since their clothes are clean as well, they are certainly pure as they do have any stains on their clothes (or character). It is also a strong image, not only are the armies of heaven arrayed in fine, white clothes, they also follow Christ on white horses. White seems to be a dominant theme in the bible for symbolizing purity. Finally, chapter nineteen, verses twelve and thirteen, state “His eyes were like a flame of fire, and on His head were many crowns. He had a name written that no one knew except Himself. He was clothed with a robe dipped in blood, and His
“Revelation” is from the Greek word apokalupsis which means, “A disclosure, an unveiling.” The book of Revelation is an unveiling of the Character and program of God.
As defined by Migliore, Revelation means an “unveiling,” uncovering,” or “disclosure” of something previously hidden. Today, Community of Christ affirms the Living God is ever self-revealing to the world through the testimony of Israel and Jesus Christ. Revelation provides important decisions about who God is and how we are to understand the world and ourselves. In seeking to understand, as a member of Community of Christ, we must explore the historical and contextual response of the leaderships to revelation within the setting of the Restoration and the Reorganization era.
relevant to life, such as do not kill and do not steal. The bible also
Revelation identifies itself as “both an “apocalypse”…and as prophecy”, making it distinctly different from the rest of the New Testament. “Jewish apocalyptic literature flourished in the centuries following the completion of the OT canon”, and it is scattered throughout the Old Testaments in books such as Daniel, Ezekiel, and Isaiah. Apocalyptic literature is full of “visions that dramatize the prophet’s admission to God’s heavenly council”, and convey their meaning primarily through symbolism. John brings a “balanced message of comfort, warning, and rebuke” in Revelation, testifying to the end of the world and the second coming of Jesus Christ. Apart from the OT literature, Revelation shows a distinct optimism toward the end of days, for “Christ’s death has already won the decisive victory over evil”, with the Kingdom of God already among believers. This book was written in “approximately A.D. 95 on the island of Patmos”, which is still standing to this day. It was written under the emperor Domitian, with Roman authorities exiling John “to the island of Patmos (off the coast of Asia)”. The events in Revelation are also “ordered
Revelation refers primarily to God’s disclosure of truth trough words, acts, or any other means, but most fully in the person of Jesus Christ. It refers to the content of truth-the subject matter that is communicated to the prophet. “It is the content of the message communicated by God to His prophet in the process of inspiration.” (Roger Coon, Inspiration/Revelation: What It is and How it Works, Part I, 18)
In our first class session we accomplished a lot, we learned about the key themes that can be found in the New testament and how one goes about questioning the themes and connecting the new and old testaments. The one major theme that we found to be one of the big ones of the New Testament was Jesus and all his deeds, death and resurrection. When this theme was first revealed to the class, I thought well obviously! But once we began to talk about all the other themes such as restoration, redemption, the church and the building relationship between the Jews and Gentiles. And Dr. Hall began to connect each theme together with a link and with each connection every last theme eventually led back to Jesus and his deeds, death and resurrection