All Powerful and Mysterious

Before we move on to the letters to the churches and into the visions of Revelation, it's helpful to get in one more round of preface.

John’s audience is likely one that is familiar with a class of Judaic literature known as “Apocalyptic.” Many Jews of the day believed that there were two “ages”: the present, which is bad and without redemption, and the second is God’s golden age, when his creation is perfect, and the time between the two ages is characterized by destruction. Apocalyptic literature deals with the sins of the present, the trials of the “time between,” and the promise of the golden age. It is composed of visions of the end times, and thus is cryptic because it is thought to be describing the indescribable (Barclay, 1976). Further, such literature was often written in times of oppression, and because of the Roman dominance during the time-period when Revelation was thought to be written, the literature had to be understood by its audience, but indecipherable to enemies. Revelation uses heavy Hebrew-text imagery and symbolism that had significance and was understood to those familiar with that literature. The style uses visions to symbolize future events, so direct literal interpretation visual cues can lead to trouble (Svigel, 2000). Other books of similar style were 1 Enoch, the Book of Jubilees, 4 Ezra, and Assumption of Moses, 2 Baruch, Apocalypse of Abraham, and the Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs, as well as Christian apocalypses such as Ascension of Isaiah, Shepherd of Hermas, the Apocalypse of Peter, and the Apocalypse of Paul (Brighton, 1999).

Apocalyptic writing is theocentric, but Rev is definitely Christocentric. For Believers, Revelation is more than “literary meditation on prophetic themes” (Brighton, 1999). Revelation is thought to be the prophecy of Jesus (through John) where John uses apocalyptic themes as long as they follow Hebrew prophecy and lead to the Christ–centered , triumphant–God ideas of Revelation. There is also the question of whether or not apocalyptic writing is esoteric and tells of present and future secrets, or whether it is more prophetic, with the purpose of influencing change of the listener/reader. Some of it is a little of both, but Revelation is prophetic in that it comes from God who desires that all people repent and believe the teachings of Christ.

The writing is not necessarily chronological (Greek khronos: time that is measured sequentially, as describing events in order; as opposed to kairos: time in terms of circumstances, such as “time to harvest”—much of time in Rev is kairos). Each vision discusses a different aspect of the time from Jesus ministry on earth to his second coming, a kind of spiral effect. More on this later.

So, Revelation seems mysterious to us; the young reformer Martin Luther wrote, “My spirit cannot adapt itself to this book” he could not see the book expounding on the Christ’s earthly ministry although he accepted it as scripture––“…we can profit by this book and make good use of it”, and later said, “Christ is nonetheless with his saints, and wins the final victory” (Barclay, 1999). The danger is that the book can be confusing and some dismiss it as not find reason to study it, and others think they’ve discovered some secret explanation or concept—but every generation since the first century has come up with different interpretations of the prophecies.

Jamaal 1:1
"God is all-powerful. Keep that Faith, make sure He is your Lord, your Father, and persevere over the trials of this world, and everything will be OK as you join the Father in heaven for eternity. As long as you can keep your jerk itch under control..."

-J