"After forty days Noah opened a window he had made in the ark and sent out a raven, and it kept flying back and forth until the water had dried up from the earth. Then he sent out a dove to see if the water had receded from the surface of the ground. But the dove could find nowhere to perch because there was water over all the surface of the earth; so it returned to Noah in the ark. He reached out his hand and took the dove and brought it back to himself in the ark. He waited seven more days and again sent out the dove from the ark. When the dove returned to him in the evening, there in its beak was a freshly plucked olive leaf! Then Noah knew that the water had receded from the earth."~Genesis 8:6-11

Saturday, March 9, 2013

Revelation


This letter was written by John the apostle during his exile on the island of Patmos (1:1-2,9) to seven churches in Asia (1:4): Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, and Laodicea (1:11).  It is likely that many of these churches had been around since the beginning of Paul’s third missionary journey (Acts 19:10), 54-57AD.  John received a series of visions that he is commanded to write down and send to the aforementioned churches (1:10-11).  This probably occurred during the end of Domitian’s reign over the Roman empire (90-96AD) as there was severe, empire-wide persecution of Christian’s during that time, and this letter is clearly written to persecuted churches (1:9, 2:13, 2:10, 3:10).

Understanding this book requires knowledge of the meaning of various numbers for the original readers.  For example, 2 means strengthening, for confirmation, for redoubled courage and energy.  3 is representative of the divine, a general reference to the trinity.  4: the created world. 7: completeness, perfection, fulfillment.  3 1/2: Incomplete (the church age persecution, the gospel going forth). 10: human completeness.  12: the people of God. 6: doom-falling short of perfection.  The book is riddled with symbolism from colors to numbers to animals to geographical locations.  Keeping in mind the original reader, we can have a good idea of what many of these things may symbolize based off of their use and significance in the rest of the Bible, especially the Old Testament. 

There are four popular ways to interpret the apocalyptic literature contained in this epistle.  The approach I am taking to the book, called the idealist or the symbolic approach, does not attempt to find individual fulfillments of the visions, but takes Revelation to be a great drama depicting transcendent spiritual realities, and depicting the heavenly vindication and final victory of Christ and his saints.

"Then I saw another angel flying directly overhead, with an eternal gospel to proclaim to those who dwell on earth, to every nation and tribe and language and people. And he said with a loud voice, 'Fear God and give him glory, because the hour of his judgment has come, and worship him who made heaven and earth, the sea and the springs of water.'"- Revelation 14:6-7

OBSERVATION
Who does the angel give the eternal gospel of fearing God, giving him glory and worshiping him?
Every nation, tribe, language, and people.

INTERPRETATION
What does this mean for the original reader?
This is a group of four- it’s referring to (yes, what it says) but it’s broader, it’s the whole of creation.  Every single person will hear this eternal gospel.
What does that tell the original reader about God’s character?
He gives everyone a chance to repent.  He desires for everyone to come into a saving relationship with him.  He is just and fair.

TIMELESS TRUTH
God desires for everyone to know him, and says that all will hear his eternal gospel and be given a chance to repent.

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