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The Book of Revelation,
singular, is the last book of the New Testament. This book
continues to be one of the most wrongly divided and misunderstood
writings of the 66 books in the Bible. Folks like the Jehovah
Witnesses, people predicting the end of the world,
premillennialist and others make claims from this prophetic and
symbolic writing of John to validate their religious views.
However, we must “rightly divide” the Bible (2 Tim.
2:15). Any conclusion one draws from the book of Revelation must
be in agreement with the rest of Biblical teaching and man has no right
to take liberty with interpretation where God has given him none!
Many folks want to begin their study of the Bible with the Book of
Revelation. This is like “putting the cart before the
horse” or learning calculus before basic math. If someone
was new to the Bible, this writing is not the place to start a study of
the Bible. It has also been this preacher’s experience
while conducting home Bible studies that folks desire to ask questions
pertaining to the book of Revelation. I suppose the images of
beast, visions, and numbers has caught the attention of many.
The book of Revelation was written to provide comfort to first century
Christians who were under distress. It was written in such a way
that they could understand and find peace in a time when the life of a
Christian was being threatened. This kind of comfort and peace
can also be found by Christians of this era who are persecuted because
of their faith in Christ. Regarding the figurative aspect of the
book of Revelation Ray Summers commented, “Often one is led to
question as to why literature is presented in such a cryptic manner as
characterizes apocalypses. The answer to such a question is seen in the
fact that this literature was written in dangerous times. The personal
safety of both writer and reader was endangered if the persecutors
understood the true meaning of the book. For this reason the message of
the apocalypse was written so as to conceal and to reveal---to conceal
the message from the outsider but to reveal its message to the
initiated” (Worthy Is The Lamb, p.5).
~ Keith N. Welch
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