Notes on Revelation (notes)

Revelation - Notes

Just As Genesis is the book of beginnings, Revelation is the book of Consummation. In the divine program redemption is brought to completion and the holy name of God is vindicated before all creation.

Although There Are Numerous prophecies in the Epistles, Revelation is the only New Testament book that focuses primarily on prophetic events. Its title means unveiling or disclosure. Thus the book of Revelation is an unveiling of the character and program of God.

John Wrote

• The book around visions and symbols of the resurrected Christ who alone has the authority to judge the earth, to remake it, and to rule it in righteousness.
• While on Patmos around 95 AD, God unveiled to John the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ and what would soon come to pass.

Views of Interpretation

1. Symbolic view: Revelation is not predictive of events in the future but symbolic of the cosmic conflict of spiritual principles.
2. Preterist view: is a symbolic description of the Roman persecution of the church.
3. Historic View: Approaches the book as an allegorical panorama of the history of the western church from the first century to the second coming of Christ.
4. Futurist View: acknowledges the obvious, that the first century conflict between Roman power and the church had upon the themes of this book. It also accepts the bulk of Revelation (Chapters 4-22) as an inspired look into the time right before the second coming of Christ.

Jesus Christ is revealed in the book of Revelation like no other book in the Bible. As we prepare to look into the trumpet judgments we will look at a couple of things that are very important before we proceed.

What Will Happen:

• The world will become progressively more evil before the end of the age while the church becomes more powerful, more pure and more in love with Jesus.
• The world will become more selfish and more demonized while the church will become more giving & more open to the Holy Spirit.
• The world will become more superficial while the church becomes more supernatural.

Revelation 8:1-5

1 When he opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven for about half an hour. Some Bible teachers believe that the seventh seal is the beginning of the seven trumpets and the seventh trumpet is the beginning of the first bowl of judgment. 2 And I saw the seven angels who stand before God, and seven trumpets were given to them. 3 Another angel, who had a golden censer, came and stood at the altar. He was given much incense to offer, with the prayers of all God’s people, on the golden altar in front of the throne. 4 The smoke of the incense, together with the prayers of God’s people, went up before God from the angel’s hand. 5 Then the angel took the censer, filled it with fire from the altar, and hurled it on the earth; and there came peals of thunder, rumblings, flashes of lightning and an earthquake.

Just As Angles Played a role in history, in the Old Testament God put an angel to guard the Garden of Eden. Angels appeared to Abraham before the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. Angels will carry out some of the judgments of God during the tribulation.

Angels Also

• Play a role in our prayer life. When Daniel was fasting and praying in Babylon God gave him a powerful revelation. In Daniel 10 we see how angels help us in spiritual warfare.
• In Revelation 8 we see how the angel of God present our prayers before the throne of God.
• Angels take fire from the altar and will hurl it on the earth and the judgments begin as a result.