As
was with the studies that were conducted these past six years, such as the
Heidelberg Catechism, Canons of Dordt, and the Belgic Confession, which were
spread over several thousand pages that were typed up, read and studied, this
study also is conducted as a result of various requests from brothers and
sisters who expressed a desire to know more about this very important book in
Scripture. Not only is it an important book,
but it is also a mysterious book, difficult to comprehend and even more
difficult to explain. When I say that
it is an important book, in no way do I imply that it is ranked higher than the
other books of the Bible. But perhaps
because of its purpose, to explain to the church what the final outcome would
be and to tie all the prophecies and testimonies together in their ultimate
fulfillment, it is subject to more mystery and awe than the other books of the
canon.
In
the compilation of this study, extensive use was made of 'Die Bybel met verklarende
aantekeninge' (the Afrikaans Bible with exegetical notes) issued by 'Verenigde
Protestantse Uitgewers (Edms) Bpk. Kaapstad, 1976' (United Protestant
Publishers, Cape Town, 1976) with permission from the Bible Society of South
Africa.
All
honor and glory is given to our Lord, Jesus Christ, who inspired the church
fathers at that time to compile and publish this Bible that has so much value
to so many students of the Reformed Faith.
The
last book of the Bible serves as a revelation
or apocalypse and also as a
prophecy. That is why it is also called
a prophetic-apocalyptic book with
which we indicate its distinctive character, setting it apart from the other
books of the New Testament.
There
is a close relationship between prophecy and apocalypses and yet there are
distinctive differences. Prophecy can
be seen as a summarizing concept and apocalypses as a particular type of
prophecy. In general, prophecy can be
described as the preaching or interpretation of the counsel of God within
specific times, circumstances, environments, and nations. Prophecy works toward the ultimate
conclusion of God's will in accordance with His salvation plan for the
elect. In contrast, apocalypse is, as a
rule, a scriptural announcement of God's counsel for the future and it opens up
a wide vision of world events and relations between nations. It announces the end of the world as God's
catastrophic and violent intervention in the history of the world. Prophecy speaks about contemporary events
and images; apocalypse speaks the language of dreams and visions and makes use
of metaphors and figures of speech.
Images from the human and animal world, phenomena from nature and
fantasy, colors, numbers, and geometry, are used to give the prophecies symbolic
meaning. These images are distorted
from reality so that they may illustrate the prophetic beyond their realistic
boundaries.
In
this sense, the revelation of John is at the same time prophetic and
apocalyptic in nature. It has its root in the time and circumstance of the
author and is a testimony of the persecution of the early Christians. At the
same time it testifies about the future suffering of believers of all times and
the destiny of all nations. It speaks about the history of the world in a language
of heavenly and supernatural images and visions.
What
we read in this revelation, therefore, should not be taken literally, but the
imagery and specific language in which it was written should be interpreted
with the rest of Scripture at hand, through the figure of speech. Equally important is that the imagination
should not overpower the reason, which is richly connected to the rest of
Scripture. Contemporary events should
not be used to find similarities with the imagery of this book in an attempt to
define fulfillment of prophecy. The
reader is admonished to exercise great care and humbleness in the attempt to
traverse the depths of this book.
As
prophetic-apocalyptic Scripture, the book of Revelation draws closely and
richly on the books of Daniel, Ezekiel, Zechariah, portions of Isaiah, and
Joel. But the testimonies of the Old
Testament regarding the return of Christ are presented in this book in a
worldwide context and impact, which culminates in the Second Coming of Christ
in glory. Firmly embedded in the
prophecies and testimonies of Scripture, salvation history is finally and
universally unfolded with Christ as its glorious King.
The
book originates from God himself. He
gave it to Christ who again gave it to his holy angels and to his servant the
Apostle John. That is why the content
of this book is truly the word of God and testifies about Jesus Christ. Not only does it follow that this book is of
Divine authority, but also that it is the continuation and final fulfillment of
the revelation God gave in the rest of Scripture. Therefore, the imagery and figures of speech may never be
interpreted without binding it with the rest of Scripture.
The
author calls himself John without indicating that he is the Apostle. There are some who doubt that it is the
Apostle John who wrote the book, but it should be noted that the Apostle was so
well known among the churches that it was not necessary to identify himself
other than in the way he was known to them.
It is commonly agreed that the Apostle lived in Ephesus when he wrote
the book of Revelation and there are significant similarities of expressions
and style between this book and his other books. This, and the fact that
another John would have explicitly identified himself to the church, caused
general agreement that the Apostle John was indeed the author of the book of
Revelation.
One
can only estimate when the book was written.
According to Revelation 1:9 - 11 it happened when the Apostle was in
exile on the island Patmos by Ephesus.
The persecution of the Christians, which included the Apostle, was that
of Caesar Domitianus, who ruled from 81 - 95 AD. Traditional wisdom places the penning of the book of Revelation
at the last year of Caesar Domitianus, which is 95 AD. There is no reason to doubt that this is
correct.
The
book Revelation is in the form of a letter to the seven churches in Asia, but
it is to the address of the church of Christ of all times. The whole is of a poetic nature, artfully
structured according to a remarkable schema in which certain numbers,
especially the number seven, is skillfully used as basis of its imagery. For
example, the seven churches, seven letters, seven seals, seven trumpets, seven
angels, seven spirits, seven thunders, and so on. There are also other places in which the number seven is used or
multiples of it.
The
purpose of this book is to comfort the persecuted churches by announcing to
them the triumph of Christ and his gospel and that the complete salvation of
the believers is at hand.
The
contents of the book deals with what is
now and what will take place in the future. The main theme throughout the book is that the Lord will
return. We see this clearly in the
words of Christ himself in
Revelation 1:8
"I am the Alpha and the Omega," says the Lord God, "who
is, and who was, and who is to come, the Almighty."
Revelation 22:7, 12, 20 "Behold, I am coming soon! Blessed is he who keeps the words
of the prophecy in this book." 12"Behold, I am coming
soon! My reward is with me, and I will give to everyone according to what he
has done." 20He who testifies to these things says, "Yes,
I am coming soon." Amen. Come, Lord Jesus.
We
will see the same thing in many other passages in the book of Revelation, which
we will deal with during the study.
With
these statements Christ does not only mean his physical return on the clouds,
but the entire world history, everything that happened since his incarnation,
has to be seen as a preparation for his final return and judgment. The history of man, and in particular
salvation history, is like a golden thread from before creation till after the
final judgment and separation of believers and unbelievers. It is an unbroken
thread oftentimes viewed from different perspectives but continually pushed
along from event to event, till it reaches the grand finale in the last
judgment; reaching its goal as predetermined before creation: the collection of
a people who freely desire to glorify God.
The
book of Revelation is an excellent comforter for the church who is admonished
by it to persevere in the expectation of Jesus Christ who will appear in his
full majesty and glory to take the faithful to the New Jerusalem.
After
the first introductory verses, there are three main divisions of the book,
namely, first, 1:9 -3:22, which deal
with the appearance of Christ and, through John, the sending of letters to the seven
churches. Second, 4:1 - 20:15 in which the deployment of God's salvation
history is described, with the accompanying wicked attacks of Satan. Third, 21:1 - 22:5 wherein the
completion of salvation history is described. The book is closed with admonitions
and closing prayers in 22:6 - 21.
Before
we start with the passage-by-passage exposition of the Book of Revelation, we
will first look at who this book is about, namely, Jesus Christ. Secondly, we
will look at the Scriptures that Jesus used to reveal himself to the Jews as
the Messiah. And finally, before the study itself, we will look at the purpose
of God for creating all of this that we experience today. These topics will
prepare us for this study and bring our understanding to a level where many of
the occurrences would be much clearer.