Last week we asked what the book of Revelation is: an apocalypse, a prophecy, and a letter to churches — and, above everything, the revelation of Jesus Christ. This week we ask the next question. Now that we know what kind of book it is, how should we read it?
One housekeeping note first. If a lesson leaves a little meat on the bone and you have a question, do not sit on it. Write it on a slip of paper and leave it on my desk, or text it to me. The fifteen minutes between Sunday School and the morning service is not the moment — but I want every question answered, and more than likely the answer is one we will have to dig out together. I am not coming to you with a wealth of knowledge on this book. I am a student of the Word alongside you.
Reading a book written in symbols
Apocalyptic writing communicates through symbolic imagery and numbers, and we do this every day without thinking about it. A ring on a particular finger tells you a man is married before you ever see his wife. A skull and crossbones on a cup tells you not to drink from it, even though there are no bones inside. A white flag means surrender. Dial 9-1-1, 24/7, 50/50 — you know instantly what each of those means with no further explanation.
That is what Revelation does. Because it is apocalyptic literature, a symbol or a number can carry a great deal of meaning in a very short description. When it says Jesus had eyes of fire, a sword coming out of His mouth, and feet like brass, it does not mean His eyes were literally on fire or a sword was literally in His mouth. Brass is judgment — Jesus stands on the foundation of judgment. Eyes of fire — He sees all. A two-edged sword from His mouth — the Word of God, which the Scripture calls a two-edged sword, and Jesus is the Word. A word picture painted in a sentence, and you immediately see what it shows.
So Revelation is not a secret predictive code about the timing of the end of the world. Some of you remember the book 88 Reasons Why the Rapture Will Be in 1988. He did not come back, and the author had to publish a revision. It is not a puzzle containing the name and birth date of the Antichrist, either. Rather, it uses symbols drawn from the Old Testament, and John expects his readers to discover what the symbols mean by looking up the passages he is alluding to. When he writes “candlesticks,” a reader who knew the Old Testament thought immediately of Zechariah 4. Want to understand Revelation better? A general working knowledge of the whole Old Testament is the best place to start. Not every image has a clear call-back — God keeps some things in mystery — but a great deal can be understood by referencing back.
Because Revelation is also a prophecy, it is a word from God to His people. The prophets did not stand up and say, “Thus saith Isaiah.” They said, “Thus saith the Lord,” and that carried the authority of Jehovah behind it. This prophecy brings every other prophecy, Old and New Testament, to its climax: the return of Jesus Christ. And because Revelation is also a letter, John is addressing the real situations of first-century churches — which, in parentheses, can also apply to any church today, including ours.
The key to the book: Revelation 1:17–19
“And when I saw him, I fell at his feet as dead. And he laid his right hand upon me, saying unto me, Fear not; I am the first and the last: I am he that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive for evermore, Amen; and have the keys of hell and of death. Write the things which thou hast seen, and the things which are, and the things which shall be hereafter.”Revelation 1:17–19
Notice what happens when John sees the Lord: he falls at His feet as dead. Every time in Scripture that someone stood in the presence of God — Moses, Joshua, the disciples on the mount of transfiguration — they fell on their face. I have heard people describe what they plan to do when they get to heaven. You are probably going to fall on your face. And in a book with a lot of doom and gloom, do not miss what Jesus says next: I was dead, I am alive, and I am alive for evermore. He holds the keys of hell and of death.
Then verse 19, which many consider the key to the whole book. Jesus frames Revelation in a past, a present, and a future: the things which thou hast seen, the things which are, and the things which shall be hereafter. As with nearly everything in Revelation, there is more than one way to understand it, and my aim is not to tell you how to read the verse but to show you the major views, tell you where I land and why, and leave room for the Spirit of God to guide you — and room for me to be wrong.
The view I believe is most accurate: the things which thou hast seen is chapter 1 — the vision of Christ John has just received (you can fold all of human history to that point in there if you like). The things which are is chapters 2 and 3, the letters to the seven churches, present tense. The things which shall be hereafter is chapters 4 through 22 — the rapture of the church, the tribulation, the millennial reign, and eternity.
Since this is the revelation of Jesus Christ, that gives you a three-word outline of the book. Chapter 1 is His glory: you cannot read it and walk away unmoved by His person and appearance. Chapters 2 and 3 are His grace: He tells the churches plainly what they have gotten wrong, then tells them how to correct it, and promises a reward if they remain faithful. Chapters 4 through 22 are His government: whatever happens on earth, right, wrong, or indifferent, God is sovereign, Jesus holds the keys, and the victory is not will be won — it has been won.
The other major view puts “seen” at chapters 1–3, “are” at chapters 4–18, and “hereafter” at 19–22. There is a lot of present tense in the middle section, but also a lot of past tense, so I find it a shakier assumption. I go with the first view.
Four ways Christians read Revelation
You can find a thousand people with a thousand views, but four major ones cover most of the ground.
1. Preterist — “it already happened”
Revelation is tied primarily to first-century events. The beast is Rome or a Roman emperor; the seals, trumpets, and vials picture the persecution of the early church; large portions are connected with the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple in AD 70. A partial preterist still expects Christ’s return and the final resurrection. A full preterist goes further and holds that even the second coming has already happened — which would mean we are living in the tribulation or the millennium right now. I could see how someone might make the case for the tribulation; if this is the millennial reign, it is severely disappointing. I do not hold this view.
2. Historicist — “it happens throughout history”
Revelation unfolds slowly as a prophetic panorama of church history: the early church, the Roman Empire, the medieval church, the Reformation, the modern era, and finally the second coming. This reading was especially influential among the Protestant Reformers and later interpreters. I do not hold this view either.
3. Idealist — “it keeps happening”
Also called the spiritual, symbolic, or presentist view. Rather than tying each vision to one historical event, Revelation depicts timeless spiritual realities: Christ versus Satan, the church versus the world, truth versus error, faithfulness versus compromise. The beast, on this reading, is not only one person but the recurring reality of anti-Christian power.
Let me be clear about what I do and do not take from this. There will be one second coming, one Israel, one church of the firstborn, and one tribulation. There will be an actual person — the one we call the Antichrist, one of the three figures in the unholy trinity with Satan and the false prophet, though that title never actually appears in Scripture. But there is also the spirit of antichrist, and it has been in the world since Jesus:
“Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world. Hereby know ye the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God: And every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God: and this is that spirit of antichrist, whereof ye have heard that it should come; and even now already is it in the world.”1 John 4:1–3
Has the Antichrist been born? Maybe, maybe not. Is the spirit of antichrist in the world? Yes. Can I, the pastor of a Bible-believing church, exemplify it? Absolutely — if I oppose the teaching of Jesus, if I am pharisaical in my heart, if I say I love you and backbite you, if I say I care about the gospel and never share it, if I say I love doctrine and teach what is false. Anything against Christ is antichrist. Satan has done a masterful job of getting people so obsessed with who the Antichrist is out there that they stop looking for the spirit of antichrist in here. So while I do not believe Revelation has already happened or is trickling out across history, I do believe the big picture it shows — the war between God and Satan, good and evil, truth and error — plays out in a nation, in a church, and in my own heart. There is much to be gained from taking its principles and applying them.
4. Futurist — “it will happen”
This fits Revelation as an apocalypse, a prophecy, and a letter. Chapters 1–3 concern John’s day and the seven churches; most of chapters 4–22 concern future events. The common outline: the church age (where we are now), the rapture, the tribulation, the second coming, the millennium, the final judgment, and the new heaven and new earth. The Antichrist and the beast are future rulers, the tribulation is future judgment, Armageddon is a future battle (it was not World War II), Christ’s return is literal and future, and the thousand years of Revelation 20 is a future kingdom.
One correction that comes up often: the second coming is not the rapture. Christ does not come back down to get us; we are caught up to meet Him in the air, then comes the tribulation, and then He returns. That order matters, and people frequently blur it.
Something we can all agree on: Revelation is the book of endings
Whichever way you read Revelation 1:19, and whichever of the four views you hold, one thing is beyond argument. Genesis means beginnings. Revelation is the book of consummation — the book of endings — and it is the perfect ending to the divine library. Walk through it with me.
Heaven and earth begin in Genesis 1:1: “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.” Heaven and earth end in Revelation 21:1: “And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away.”
Sin and the curse enter in Genesis 3:6, when the woman took of the fruit and did eat, and gave to her husband, and he did eat. Sin and the curse end in Revelation 21:27 — “there shall in no wise enter into it any thing that defileth” — and Revelation 22:3: “And there shall be no more curse.” What makes heaven heaven? No sin, and no curse of sin.
Satan’s activity begins in Genesis 3:1: “Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field.” Satan’s doom is recorded in Revelation 20:10, where the devil that deceived them is cast into the lake of fire.
The tree of life is relinquished in Genesis 2:9; 3:24 in Genesis 2:9 and 3:24 —mdash; present in the garden, then guarded by cherubims and a flaming sword when man was driven out. The tree of life is regained in Revelation 22:2, in the midst of the street of the city, bearing twelve manner of fruits, its leaves for the healing of the nations. What exactly the two trees were is a study for another day; it is enough to notice that what was lost in the first book is restored in the last.
Death makes its entrance in Genesis 2:17: “in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.” Adam ate, and nothing seemed to happen — God must have been wrong and the serpent right. But Adam died immediately in his spirit, began to die progressively in his soul, and finally died in his body: “all the days that Adam lived were nine hundred and thirty years: and he died” (Genesis 5:5). God did not lie. And when God saves us, He reverses it in exactly the opposite order. We are made alive immediately in our spirit — justification. We are made more like Christ in our soul over time — sanctification. And we will be made wholly alive in our body — glorification. Justification, sanctification, glorification is the undoing of what happened in the garden, and Revelation is where that undoing is finished.
Sorrow begins in Genesis 3:16: “I will greatly multiply thy sorrow.” Sorrow is banished in Revelation 21:4: “And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away.”
Where we go from here
Next week we finally open chapter 1 and look at the revelation of Jesus Christ Himself — His person, His nature, His attributes. Then chapters 2 and 3, the letters to the churches. Then chapter 4, where John is taken up into the throne room of God; chapter 5, the seven-sealed book; and chapter 6, where the Lamb begins to open the seals. Two weeks of foundation are about to pay off. My prayer is that all of it helps you see, understand, and love Jesus a little more.