Welcome (or welcome back) to Godhound.
When I told my wife I wanted to study Revelation, I said, “ How am I
ever going to read all the commentaries?” There must be thousands of
them! Her reply? “I think the Lord is telling you, ‘Read less and pray
more’.” She always hit the nail on the head. So, I’ve been praying my
way through Revelation for more than six years, and this is what my
own eyes have seen:
1) If I interpret this book as a political document about the evils of
the Roman empire or the wickedness of Hitler, I’ve missed the
point.
2) Revelation is very personal. It’s about the relationships among
Christian men and women in seven prominent cities in the Roman
province of Asia. Back then churches were very small. Christians
met in each other’s homes—ten or twelve people per church!
3) John could put a name and a face to every beast, monster, dragon
and falling star in the Book of Revelation. These beasts are men
and women who live in those church fellowships. They are not
images of a far distant emperor in Rome or tyrants who will live
20 centuries later.
Warning!
Do not attempt to use reason or logic to understand this Book. Trust
me, I tried it, and it doesn’t work. Instead, become four years old
again. Live by your imagination, fantasies and feelings. Believe in
Batman, Wonder Woman and Captain Marvel. Read a Harry Potter
book. Enroll in Hogwarts Then pray through Revelation.
This Book is a dream. Jesus inspired John what to write about, but the
words are John’s (John of Patmos –“JP” from now on.) First JP writes
seven letters to the Christians in the seven cities (chapters two and
three), The real dreams start with chapter four. Some will be ecstasy;
some nightmares. They all relate back to what’s going on with the
Christians in those seven cities.
Background
John, a Jewish Christian soaked in the Old Testament prophets Ezekiel
and Daniel, wrote Revelation about 90 A.D. In exile on the isle of
Patmos, about 40 miles off the coast of Turkey in the Aegean Sea, he
had served as a missionary prophet and pastor in the Roman province
of Asia (it wasn’t a continent back then).
Despite the testimony of the 4 th century Christian historian, Eusebius,
John was not a political exile. (“Historians” back then had no computers
to check facts and often passed on unverified traditions as “history.”)
No archaeological evidence exists for widespread Roman persecution of
Christians in that part of the empire at that time. Nor was Patmos an
island prison for political troublemakers. So, who forced John to sail to
Patmos?
Disgruntled men and women in the Churches he served pushed him
out of Dodge. Primary among them was a woman in Thyatira whom he
calls “Jezebel.” She’ll come up later. Let’s move on.
Some preachers think the Book of Revelation’s key message is: “Turn or
burn” Filled with monsters, beasts and dragons, what else could it be?
When I prayed through (and not just “read through”) this Book, I’d stop
every few lines and ask God,
“What’s God’s message for me today?”
When I read in Revelation 1:14, “And his (Jesus’) eyes were like flaming
fire,” my knee jerk reaction was: “ In the Book of Revelation God’s
going to wipe people out; he’s really angry!” Then the Lord said, “Wake
up, John (Lynch) --, remember how I Ied the Israelites though the
desert? As a ‘cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night’? (Exodus 1:21-
23).
“ That’s how I kept them from burning up in the daytime; that’s’ how I
kept the jackals away by night. I’m doing the same for you every day of
your life. And I did the same thing for the people in the Book of
Revelation. Just read on and see.
“Did I come across in that Book as a cozy camp fire? Get real! Things
were so messed up in those churches I blazed like a refiner’s fire. I
purified the silver and gold I created those people to be. I burned out
the dross that so many people had plastered over my love in their
hearts.
“No matter how many venomous, violent waters life sent roaring into
their lives, my love for them could never be quenched. As the Song of
Songs sang in the Old Testament (Song 8:6), and as Giselle MacKenzie
and Helen O’Connell used to sing,
“Water can push and water can shove,
But
Water can’t quench the fire of Love.”
That’s Revelation’s theme song. The love blazing in Jesus’s eyes
proclaims ‘diamonds” for each city’s churches -- words from the Bible
that gleam and sparkle over the whole Book of Revelation . They give a
positive and hopeful spin to what otherwise looks like a message of
dread, fear and hopelessness. One diamond covers the whole Book:
Diamond #1 --
“For the Lord your God is a consuming fire, an impassioned God”
(Deuteronomy 4:24).