Four Keys To The Book of Revelation

Thus far I have considered in some detail the basic background to the book of Revelation, especially the nature of apocalyptic literature and the numerical symbolism that is such a key part of it. Before I get directly into a chapter-by-chapter study of the text, I want to look at one more introductory aspect, what I call “four keys to the book of Revelation.” They are all found within the book, in the first two chapters. And once again, failure to grasp these crucial points can lead to significant errors in rightly comprehending John’s message.

The first two keys are found in the very first verse.

Key #1—“The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave unto him, to shew unto his servants things which must shortly come to pass.” While some people suggest that the book was written before 70 A.D. in lieu of the coming destruction of Jerusalem, most scholars believe that John wrote around 95 with the Roman persecution in mind. That’s the view I will take in this study. But either way, the things written would “shortly come to pass.” They weren’t going to happen 2,000 years later; 2,000 years from 95 A.D. is not “shortly.” Now, I suppose if one looks at it from God’s perspective, 2,000 years isn’t much. But the book is written for humans to understand, and if you were one of John’s readers in the first century, and you read that the things written in Revelation were going to “shortly come to pass,” what would you think? The book is written for beleaguered Christians in the first century, for their aid, and the happenings in the book are for their strength and comfort, not just ours. Any attempt to cast the majority of the book 2,000 year into the future—as premillennial theory does—is missing a major key to understanding the Revelation.

Key #2—Also in verse 1: “and he sent and signified it by his angel unto his servant John.” As I’ve pointed out repeatedly in earlier posts, Revelation is written in signs and symbols. That’s not just the judgment of a human writer, that is the statement of inspired Scripture. Now obviously signs and symbols have meaning; John isn’t writing nonsense. But we must be very, very careful about literalizing, when the book itself says it was “signified” to John. Thus, a literal battle of Armageddon, or a literal 1,000 years is problematic, at best, especially since there is no other location in Scripture—literal or figurative—that give any indication that those two events will ever occur. To build an entire system of theology on basically one passage of Scripture—Revelation 20 and the “1,000 year reign”—is a most hazardous approach to Biblical interpretation. Indeed, it really boggles the mind.

Key #3—In chapter 1:4, we read, “John to the seven churches which are in Asia.” To whom was the book written? That verse tells us—the seven churches of Asia, which are listed later in the chapter, and to whom specific letters are written by the Lord in chapters 2 and 3. What does the book of Revelation mean? Well, first and foremost, it means what Jesus intended for it to mean, but since it was initially written to those seven churches, then we must try to understand it the way they would have. Folks, every book in the Bible was written to somebody, by somebody, for a specific purpose calculated to be understood by its initial readers. And that’s what each of the 66 books of the Bible means. Now, of course, they all have residual meaning for us; God’s principles are timeless. But if we bypass the original readers and try to twist some meaning out of a text that would be totally inapplicable to them, then we have grossly misunderstood what the writer is trying to convey. What did the book of Revelation mean to the seven churches of Asia? That’s what it means and nothing else!! What we gain from it is based upon whatever timeless, divine truths are found in what God first told those Asian congregations. And that is just as true with the book of Romans as it is with the book of Revelation, and every other book in the Bible. I will be at pains to repeat that point ad nauseum through this study.

Key #4—“Be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life” (Rev. 2:10). There is the theme of the book. Every book has a theme and a purpose, and “faithfulness unto death” is the thesis of Revelation. And that’s not just “faithful until you die of old age,” that's “faithful even if it means your death.” The latter was a distinct possibility to Christians of John’s day, and those who lived in the Roman empire. Persecution by the Romans wasn’t constant, but it did happen, and it could be severe. And thousands of Christians suffered martyrdom at the hands of their pagan masters. That’s what Jesus meant. That theme will be illustrated in the text, as we shall see.

With these keys in mind—keys which I will probably repeat frequently through the study—I believe we have a firmer foundation for understanding John’s message. The events would “shortly come to pass.” Revelation is largely written in signs and symbols. It must be understood the way the churches of Asia, to whom it was initially written, would have understood it. And it must be interpreted in light of its thesis. Folks, there is nothing complex about that. We should approach the book of Revelation the same way we would approach all other books that have ever been written—let the writer tell us who his audience is, what he intends to say, and how he intends to say it. In that regard, what’s different about the book of Revelation from, say, a calculus textbook or a Louis L'Amour novel?