Revelation
1:1-8
The
greatest problem we face when studying or reading Revelation is the a priori
assumption of the purpose of the book. Most
of the teachers and writers who deal with Revelation act as if the book is
about future history. It is treated as a cheat sheet for a timeline allowing
Christians to know events before they happen. If we begin with this presumption
we fall into a morass of confusion trying to match the descriptions in Revelation
to events in history and link them to current or near events. This has been a
repeated failure of the church and of sects for years.
In
this passage there are two references to time in verses 1 and 4 totaling about
10 words. There is in this passage depictions and descriptions of the Father,
the Son, and the Holy Spirit, of angels and the church in every verse. This
book is just barely about time at all. It
is almost entirely about the forces of righteousness and its ultimate victory
over the powers of evil. This is a panoramic vision of the defeat of the World,
the Flesh, and the Devil at a cosmic level. It is especially important because
in life it often feels like evil is winning.
Verses
4 through 8 are almost a summary of the whole book and all of history in every
age. It is also a beautiful hymn of praise. This expression of praise begins
with the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit (v. 4 and 5) and ends with the Alpha and
Omega, the Eternal One the Almighty God (v. 8). In the middle is the story of
our Redemption and our sharing in His victory (v 5 – 7). The grandeur of God and the salvation He
provides and our sharing in that salvation makes the obsessions with dates and
charts pale into insignificance.
Our fixation on charts, time lines and graphs about dates, chronology,
currency, and marks, ends up seeming just a little shallow and silly.
This
book was written into a world of incredible suffering and persecution for God's
people. They lived in a world where it seemed that evil was the stronger and
would ultimately prevail. Into this dark world there comes this message: The
whole universe, time, history, and everything else is under God's control and He
with His people shall prevail. To understand this book don't look at history or
time; but rather, look to God and His victory and glory.
Questions
to ponder.
Of
what value would a book about the last few years before Christ’s return be to a
first century believer who is suffering for their faith?
Why
would a book about the conflict between God and His enemies, that is being
played out in the world, be useful in every age?
What
apparent evidence that the powers of darkness are winning in the world today do
you see? Could harshly persecuted
Disciples feel that maybe they were mistaken and that they chose the wrong
side?
Why
would God choose not to tell us about the ‘when’ of Jesus’ return?
Why
do you think there are so many resources about times of Christ return? What does that tell us about our churches and
ourselves?
