The Lion and the Lamb: A Guide to the Book of Revelationნიმუში

Reading Revelation Faithfully

If you were to ask people what their favorite book in all of the Bible is, chances are good that most of them would not say the Book of Revelation—and they would likely have good reasons for not putting Revelation in the top spot.

For one, Revelation is one of the most difficult books to comprehend. This one book is written in several different literary styles, overflowing with symbolism, and structured in a way that is anything but easy to follow.

Another reason? The many competing interpretations of Revelation are found throughout the Christian world. Is it mid-trib, pre-trib, or post-trib? Amillennial, premillennial, or postmillennial? Is the antichrist a person or a role? Is Revelation predicting the end times, or is it talking about the persecution of the early church? And, if all those phrases mean absolutely nothing to you, that’s okay too! It’s a wild world out there.

Finally, for a lot of people, there is a fear that digging into Revelation will uncover things they would just rather not think or worry about. With good intentions, they’ve chosen to focus on what seems most relevant to their faith and left Revelation to the experts and the weirdos.

Because of these reasons and so many more, the Book of Revelation remains a mystery to most modern Christians. This, tragically, means the vast majority of Christians are missing out on the goodness, truth, and beauty of the gospel of Jesus revealed in this book.

We want to help you see Revelation in a new way. No longer as something difficult, confusing, or scary, but instead as a beacon of hope pointing forward to the return of Jesus and the renewal of all things.

Here’s how this Plan is going to work:

The daily reading and commentary of this Plan will serve as your “tour guide,” providing background information, highlighting interesting details, and keeping you focused on the most important things. Our commitment is to, as faithfully as possible, say again what God has already said. This means we are not going to be offering our opinions on how the events of this book do or do not map to current events. We aren’t going to spend time discussing and debating the different views on the Millennium, the Rapture (which isn’t ever mentioned in Revelation), or the Mark of the Beast.

If that’s what you’re looking for, this Plan probably isn’t for you. Instead, we want to help you understand what these words from God would have meant for the original audience and what they might mean for us today so that we can live faithfully as followers of Jesus.

To read the Bible this way, we need to remember that Jesus is King and context is everything—meaning the whole Bible is a unified story that leads us to Jesus and helps us become more like Him. He’s the main character, the hero of the story, not us. The context, the historical details that illuminate the author, audience, and their purpose for writing, helps us understand the meaning of what we’re reading. That’s north on our compass. With this in mind, here’s how the Book of Revelation breaks down:

• Chapters 1-3 are in the form of an epistle, a letter from an apostle to a church or group of churches.
• Chapters 4-22 are in the form of apocalyptic prophecy. “Apocalypse” is a word that means to reveal, which is why it’s called the Book of Revelation. But, the way these apocalyptic writings reveal things is not the same way you might reveal something to your best friend. Apocalyptic writing uses symbolism to communicate ideas in ways that aren’t obvious but invite us to prayerfully wrestle with what God might be saying to us. Much of the wilder imagery we read in the Book of Revelation can be found throughout the Old Testament apocalyptic writings, specifically in the books of Daniel and Isaiah.
• At the end of chapter 22, the book returns to the form of an epistle as John concludes his writings and passes on some final instructions for his audience.

So, what do we do with all of that? We approach the Book of Revelation with humility and confidence. With humility, we recognize there is a lot in this book that will not make sense, so we ask God to help us grab onto the truths that He wants us to see. With confidence, we trust that God will use these words, even the confusing ones, to show us more of who He is and how He wants us to live.

Before we go any further, let’s pray for God to speak through His Word and do in us what only He can do.

Our Father, speak to us through Your Word. Cut away all of the assumptions, preconceived notions, and misinterpretations we’ve grabbed onto. Let us hear Your voice as recorded by Your servant John so long ago. Give us the humility to listen with curiosity and the wisdom to discern what You want us to know. In Jesus’ name, amen.