Part 2 | Introduction & Rapture

We are in part 2 of our introduction on the book of Revelation. We will have one more week after this of introduction, before we get into unpacking the book itself.

Revelation 1:1-5 “The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show to his servants the things that must soon take place. He made it known by sending his angel to his servant John, who bore witness to the word of God and to the testimony of Jesus Christ, even to all that he saw. Blessed is the one who reads aloud the words of this prophecy, and blessed are those who hear, and who keep what is written in it, for the time is near. John to the seven churches that are in Asia: Grace to you and peace from him who is and who was and who is to come, and from the seven spirits who are before his throne, and from Jesus Christ the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of kings on earth. To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood”

Review

I want to begin by quickly reviewing some of the main points from last week, as I know I covered quite a bit of material. Before we can truly understand a book of the Bible, we should ask questions like: “Who wrote the book?”, “Who was the original audience?”, “What genre is the book?”, and what is the main them(s) of the book.

Let’s review the answers to these questions, as it pertains to Revelation.

1) Author: John the Apostle

2) Date and Occasion

It seems through the evidence of the situation described in Revelation, that John wrote the book sometimes in the 90’s AD while Domitian was the Roman emperor. John was exiled to the island of Patmos when he wrote it.

The letter was meant to be a blessing to its original readers and to us. At this time, the church was dealing with issues that could fall into three main categories:

i) Physical Persecution

They faced sporadic persecution and threats from the imperial cult, which would only become worse in the near future.

To say that Jesus was Lord, in a place where Ceasar was considered Lord, would have been a massive issue.

ii) Spiritual Persecution

The Christians, who claimed to be “the people of God,” occupied the same territories as the Jews, who also claimed to be the people of God. This caused great conflict. It is likely that the Jews gave Christians up to the Roman officials.

iii.) Social Pressure

There was this great pressure to conform to the loose morals and pagan practices of the Roman world.

All around the globe, Christians are still experiencing these issues to some extent.

3) Genre

1) Epistle

Revelation was written to real people, to encourage them in real and specific circumstances.

2) Prophecy

We normally associate prophecy only with prediction

Remember, Biblical prophecy does include the prediction of future events. But, according to Dr. Wood, only about 17% of prophecies in the Bible are related to the future.

Prophecy normally emerges when there is an issue with God’s people, particularly when they have turned from Him. We see this constantly in the OT books such as Isaiah and Jeremiah.

Through the prophets, God normally calls His people to repent, to turn from their wickedness and back to Him, and he tells them what the consequences will be if they refuse. In prophecy, God— through a prophet— speaks into the lives of His people.


- This is what we find when John addresses each of the seven churches in Asia minor.

3) Apocalyptic Literature

The Greek word for Revelation is Apokalypsis

When we think hear that word, we immediately think of the end of the world.

But the word means to expose in full view what was formally hidden, veiled, or secret.

Apocalyptic literature uses symbols to reveal transcendent realities, realities beyond what we can see.

It is best described as an unveiling.

Last week I gave the illustration from the movie “Dead Poets Society,” where the English teacher (Robin Williams) invites his students to stand on his desk to see the room from a different perspective.

This is what apocalyptic literature does: it allows us to see our circumstances— and the world— from a different perspective.

In Revelation, we are able to see the world— from God’s perspective. Showing us that God has a purpose in what seems to us to be senseless suffering and chaos.

4) The Message

1) God’s Sovereignty

Throughout history, God has been in control… and He still is in control, working his redemptive purposes in the world. This should bring us great comfort.

2) Endurance

Christians should be willing to endure suffering. They should keep fighting the good fight until death or until the Lord returns. God is with us in our suffering and will ultimately vindicate us.

3) The Culmination of All Things

Revel shows us that all the Biblical prophecies will ultimately come to pass. The book ends with evil being banished and God’s Kingdom being consummated on the renewed earth.

4) Jesus

Revelation 1:1 “The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show to his servants the things that must soon take place. He made it known by sending his angel to his servant John,”

The content of Revelation comes from Jesus, and it all points to Him as the Victorious King.

Questions

Normally I open Wednesdays up for questions, but I have decided with this study, instead, to have you email me questions that pertaining to that nights topic. You can email me at [e-mail]

This week, Kay Hamm submitted a compelling questions:

Why do you think God chose those particular 7 churches to send His message to? There were many other ones around at that same time.

- Remember, Revelation is highly symbolic, but we know that John writes literally to seven real churches.

- The churches addressed in Revelation are in Asia Minor, a Roman province that is located in modern day Turkey.

- Christianity was exploding throughout this region towards the end of the first century.

- There were certainly other churches in the area, but Theologian Craig Keener points out that John writes to the most prominent and strategic seven churches in the region.

- Word would then spread quickly to the outlying areas.

- Ephesus, which is the first church John mentions, was the most important city in Asia Minor. It is also the first of the seven cities to which a messenger from Patmos would have come upon during his journey.

- So, Revelation was written to seven real churches, but…

- Remember, Revelation is Apocalyptic literature which is highly symbolic.

- The number seven is not chosen by accident. The number seven is, perhaps, Revelation’s favorite number.

- Biblically, it signifies fullness or completion

- Originally derived from the 7 days of creation

- Commentator G.K. Beale writes _“In Lev. 4:6, 17, the sevenfold sprinkling of the blood signified a completed action, as did the seven-day duration of the festivals, services of ordination, the march around Jericho, and the length of periods of cleansing from uncleanness. The significance of the number here is that the seven churches represent the fullness of the church.” _

3) Letting Go of Assumptions

Assumption 1: Revelation was written to us.

All of us approach the Bible—particularly the book of Revelation— with certain assumptions, which could hinder us from interpreting the book correctly.

- Often we fail to consider how books of the Bible meant to the original audience.

- This letter was written to address real issues that these believers were dealing with in the first century.

- It is common to think that only chapters 1-3 address the issues in the first century. It would be odd for John to write a letter that was meant to be a blessing to those seven church if only the first three— and maybe the last three—chapters pertained to them.

- Many historians and theologians show us how Revelation deals with real issues that were happening in the first century.

- **Revelation is written for us**The book is still relevant today, because history has a way of repeating itself. We deal with many of the same conflicts that plagued the believers in the first century.

Assumption 2: Revelation is written chronologically.

In the modern, Western world, we write chronologically.

- A happens, then B happens, then C happens…

- The Jews did not think this way. They thought circularly

We have a bad habit of trying to force Revelation into our chronological way of thinking: that the church is raptured, then the horrors of the seven seals happen, then the seven trumpets, then the seven bowls… but there is an issue with this line of thinking… let’s just consider the context.

1. Revelation 6:12-17 “When he opened the sixth seal, I looked, and behold, there was a great earthquake, and the sun became black as sackcloth, the full moon became like blood, and the stars of the sky fell to the earth as the fig tree sheds its winter fruit when shaken by a gale. The sky vanished like a scroll that is being rolled up, and every mountain and island was removed from its place. Then the kings of the earth and the great ones and the generals and the rich and the powerful, and everyone, slave and free, hid themselves in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains, calling to the mountains and rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the face of him who is seated on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb, for the great day of their wrath has come, and who can stand?””

- Consider the sixth seal… the sun turns black… the moon turns blood red. The stars in the sky fall to earth. What would happen if one star fell to the earth? The earth is extremely small compared to an average size star. And multiple stars fall to the earth in chapter six. The world is over. The sky is rolled up and the mountain and islands are removed. The world is over. The great day of wrath then happens (which is the final judgment)… this is the end of the world, and we are in chapter 6.

2. Revelation 11:15-18 “Then the seventh angel blew his trumpet, and there were loud voices in heaven, saying, “The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he shall reign forever and ever.” And the twenty-four elders who sit on their thrones before God fell on their faces and worshiped God, saying, “We give thanks to you, Lord God Almighty, who is and who was (what is missing (who is to come) because God is here). for you have taken your great power and begun to reign. The nations raged, but your wrath came, and the time for the dead to be judged, and for rewarding your servants, the prophets and saints, and those who fear your name, both small and great, and for destroying the destroyers of the earth.””

Here we have it again. The end of the world. The final judgement.

3. Revelation 16:17-21 “The seventh angel poured out his bowl into the air, and a loud voice came out of the temple, from the throne, saying, “It is done!” And there were flashes of lightning, rumblings, peals of thunder, and a great earthquake such as there had never been since man was on the earth, so great was that earthquake. The great city was split into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell, and God remembered Babylon the great, to make her drain the cup of the wine of the fury of his wrath. And every island fled away, and no mountains were to be found. And great hailstones, about one hundred pounds each, fell from heaven on people; and they cursed God for the plague of the hail, because the plague was so severe.”

Here we have it again! The end of the world!

Dr. Wood points out that the world ends about seven times in Revelation… which makes reading it as a sequence of events absurd.

I don’t believe that Revelation is to be read chronologically. Instead, the book employs symbols which serve as windows to see things from different perspectives.

- Illustration: watching the sunrise from different windows. (Sun rises in the east)

Through the unveiling of revelation, we see the world as it is and what will come of it from different perspectives.

Don’t assume Revelation is meant to be read chronologically.

Assumption 3: Revelation Must Be Taken Literally

I actually do believe that Revelation should be taken literally in as much as we define what it means to take something literally.

- To take revelation literally, means that we take the text according to the author’s intended meaning.

- If the author intends us to take something metaphorically, we would be interpreting it literally, if in fact we take it as a metaphor.

- Examples:

- “I’m so hungry I could eat a horse.”

- Do I mean that I could actually sit down and eat an entire horse? No!

- But I do mean, literally, that I am extremely hungry. I’m using and image to communicate a reality.

- “I am on cloud 9!”

- Do I mean that there are stacked clouds in the sky and that I am standing on the 9th one? No! I am using an image to communicate the fact that I am extremely happy— I am elated by something that has happened. 


Keener Quote: Another matter of interpretation is that some want to take everything in Revelation literally. Whether one should attempt this approach depends in a sense on what one means by the term literally. When Reformers like Luther talked about interpreting the Bible “literally,” they were using a technical designation…that meant taking each part of Scripture according to its “literary sense,” hence including attention to genre or literary type. But they did not mean that we should downplay figures of speech or symbols. We should take literally historical narrative in the Bible, but Revelation belongs to a different genre, a mixture of prophetic and “apocalyptic” genres, both of which are full of symbols. The Reformers did not demand that we interpret symbols as if they were not symbols, and this kind of literalism is actually at odds with what they meant. (Keener) 


- Dr. Wood suggests that we shouldn’t be so concerned with reading the book of Revelation literally or figuratively, but we should, instead, read it _naturally._

Assumption 4: Revelation is a puzzle to be decoded.

- It has been said that Revelation is not a puzzle book— it is a picture book.

- We have so many Christians who are obsessed with reading the book of Revelation into the headlines.

If today’s newspapers are a necessary key to interpreting the book, then no generation until our own could have understood and obeyed the book (contrary to the assumption in 1:3).(Keener)

- The problem with the approach is that in decoding the book, we miss the forest for the trees. We become so occupied with figuring where we are on the timeline, that we miss what the book is meant to do: namely, to make us marvel at Jesus and to endure to the end.

Assumption 5: The last days are the moment(s) immediately preceding Christ’s Return

We assume that the last days are either just the immediate days, weeks, or months right before the Rapture or Jesus Second Coming. But how does the Bible define the Last Days?

The phrase “Last Days” or “LastTimes” is only used seven times in the NT.

Acts 2:14-18

This is the story of Pentecost, where the Spirit of God is poured out and the believers speak with new tongues.

Some onlookers were mocking these believers, suggesting that they were drunk (it was 9am BTW).

In response to this, Peter gives this amazing discourse:

“But Peter, standing with the eleven, lifted up his voice and addressed them: “Men of Judea and all who dwell in Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and give ear to my words. For these people are not drunk, as you suppose, since it is only the third hour of the day. But this is what was uttered through the prophet Joel: “ ‘And in the last days it shall be, God declares, that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams; even on my male servants and female servants in those days I will pour out my Spirit, and they shall prophesy.”

Peter is quoting Joel 2, a prophecy about the “Last Days” and Peter is using this to explain what was currently happening. In other words, they were in the Last Days in the first century!

Hebrews 1:1-2 “Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world.”

The author of Hebrews is referring to the time before Christ’s first coming, when God spoke to His people through the prophets. But now, the writer insists, that in these last days that God has spoken to them through Jesus Christ, who is a exact representation of God the Father.

- 1 Peter 1:20

- 2 Peter 3:3-4

- James 5:1-3

- Jude 17-19

- James (5:1-3)

If you look up all these references, here is what you will find:

The Biblical definition of the Last days is “the time between Jesus’ first and second comings.”

Are we in the last days? Yes! And we have been for the last 2000 years.

Assumption 6: The Church Will Be Raptured

There are many Christians who believe in a miraculous, secret transportation of all living Christians before a literal 7 year tribulation.

I have been taught the idea of this Pre-Tribulation Rapture doctrine from the time I was young. The majority of my family believes it, and almost every church I’ve been a part of wholeheartedly holds to this doctrine. I have held to this view the majority of my lifetime, but, in the last few years, I have intently studied this idea, and have come to the strong conclusion that it is not Biblical.

Origins

Before we looks at alleged “Rapture” verses, lets consider where this doctrine came from. I’ve listened to many theologians and church historians talk about the origins of this doctrine; today, I am leaning heavily on Doctor Shane Wood.

*1) 1830 - Margaret McDonald

Margaret McDonald was from the UK. She put herself in some kind of a trance so she could get a prophet utterance. And, in this trance, she determined that Christians would be taken out of the world during a tribulation period.

For 1800 years, the idea of the church being taken from the world was unheard of.

This doesn’t necessarily mean it isn’t true, but it should cause us to pause.

*2) John Nelsen Darby

John Nelsen Darby heard about this prophetic utterance, and he put a theological framework to this idea of the church being taken away. He then came to the states several times to propagate this new teaching, by working with a community of believers called the Plymouth Brethren, who then began rapidly spreading this new theology.

*3) Cyrus Scolfield

As the doctrine began to spread, it influenced a man by the name of Cyrus Scolfield, who published one of the first study Bibles. In 1917, the Scofield Study Bible was published and quickly became one of the best selling Bibles, selling more than two million copies in the early years of the 1917 edition. This Bible contained copious notes about this Rapture theology.

Study Bibles are great. The problem comes when we forget the distinction between the top part of the pages (the God-breathed Scripture) and the bottom part of the pages (someones interpretation).

*4) DL Moody

DL Moody was a well-known evangelist who, took hold of this teaching as well. He propagated this doctrine everywhere he went.

*5) Billy Graham

The beloved Billy Graham was influenced by the teachings of DL Moody, and he wrote a book called “Approaching Hoofbeats,” in which he propagated this Rapture theology. You know how influential Billy Graham was.

*6) Hal Lindsay

In 1970 Hal Lindsay wrote ‘The Late Great Planet Earth.’ Worldwide, in the 70’s, this book outsold the Bible.

*7) Tim LaHaye

In 1990, Tim LaHaye published his fiction books, known as “The Left Behind” Series. The first book alone sold over 63 Million Copies.

I loved Growing Pains, and I think Kirk Cameron is a cool guy… but please do not get your doctrine from his movies.

**This is how, in the last 190 years, that a relatively new doctrine became the dominant view in the Western Church.**

Is the Rapture Biblical?

_The last RC Sprout one spoke with one of the leading representatives of this school of thought, a man who teaches the "pre-tribulation" rapture. He said to him, "I do not know a single verse anywhere in the Bible that teaches a pre-tribulation rapture. Can you tell me where to find that?" This was the man’s response: “No, I can't. But that's what I was taught from the time I was a little child.” Sproul responded, "Let's get our theology from the Bible rather than from Sunday school lessons we heard years and years ago."_

Three Common Rapture Proof texts

(Matthew 24:40-44)

Sing Larry Norman Song

Read Contest (Verses 36-39)

2. **1 Thessalonians 4:13-18**

The great NT scholar and 1st century historian, NT Wright— along with many other theologians— point out how the greek word “harpazō” (translated “caught up”)was used in the first century: if you had an emperor visiting a colony or province, the escorts would go out to meet him, well before he approached the city gates. They would then turn around and immediately escort him into the city. This is the context of the language that is being used in this text.

3. Revelation 4:1

- The “I” is John. This is NOT the church being taken to heaven, it is **John!**

**John 17**

- In Jesus’ priestly prayer, he prays specifically that God would NOT take his disciples out of the world, but that he would keep them in the world and protect them from the evil one. 


- I would suggest it is quite selfish to want to be taken out of the world during a time of tribulation. During such a time, the church is the light, we are the hope. 


- You might say, well pastor, we will be taken out before things get really bad.

- Let me ask you… what about the believers who are being tortured and killed for the name of Christ in Afghanistan and many other parts of the world?

- In these last days, believers all across the world have suffered and are suffering to an insane degree.

- But, we, in our Western comforts, do not want to suffer. We want to be shielded from suffering.

- But throughout the New Testament, it is clear that we are called to suffer for the sake of Christ. It is a blessing to suffer for Jesus Christ. Biblically— and throughout history— the church has exploded in times of persecution.

**- Why does this matter?**

- My job as a pastor is to prepare you for what is and what is to come.

- I do not want you to be unprepared for the days ahead.

- I think we should want to be here during times of tribulation, for the sake of others. In doing so, we will be greatly blessed.

I know some of you are so bent on tradition, that you won’t even consider changing your view on the Rapture, or on Revelation in general. I would challenge you to reconsider, as I have… Look at the Biblical text, and let the Bible speak for itself. No matter where you stand, this is a secondary issue, and we can still be friends.