Revelation and the End of All Things

After this I looked, and there in heaven a door stood open! And the first voice, which I had heard speaking to me like a trumpet, said, "Come up here, and I will show you what must take place after this." (Revelation 4: 1)

During the month of January, I will be studying the book of Revelation in preparation for teaching and preaching. The first time I did a Revelation bible study with a group was almost 8 years ago. The location was a nursing home. After my first class, a woman came up to me to tell me that her father had been a pastor. He didn’t like the book of Revelation, she said, because it frightened people. I think she might have even said that her dad thought the book was dangerous.

I don’t think that’s an uncommon sentiment towards what some people believe to be the most difficult and mysterious book in the bible. There are frightening and mysterious images and symbolism throughout the book of Revelation.

But I hope that you will join me this month and give Revelation a chance. What you will find when we read and learn together is another book in the bible that is filled with law and gospel. You will find a book that is filled with hope and promise. And you will find some brilliant and interesting and even entertaining literature.

In Revelation, John, an apostle of Jesus Christ receives a vision of heaven. “John (and thereby his readers with him) is taken up into heaven in order to see the world from the heavenly perspective. He is given a glimpse behind the scenes of history so that he can see what is really going on in the events of his time and place. He is also transported in vision into the final future of the world, so that he can see the present from the perspective of what its final outcome must be, in God’s ultimate purpose for human history. … It is not that the here-and-now are left behind in an escape into heaven or the [end-time] future, but that the here-and-now look quite different when they are opened up to [God’s presence].” (from The Theology of the Book of Revelation by Richard Bauckham: Cambridge University Press, Cambridge UK, 2001. P. 7-8.)

I invite you to discover Revelation, maybe again and maybe for the first time. The hope and promise of God in Jesus Christ be with you! Amen.