The Revelation of John
Title: The title of the book has its own
interesting story. Most of the older books has something like The Revelation of
St. John the Theologian. The last years there is a tendency to abrogate and
adjust the title into either The Revelation TO John or simply Revelation. In
reality, it is the revelation of Jesus Christ (1:1) for transmission to His
servants. The first level of transmission was completed by the angelic
intervention to St. John.
Date of
writing: As of right
now there are three main theories on the date of writing: around 300 AD,
96-98AD, and 64-65AD [or 68AD]. The first one is based on the idea that it was
not an apostolic writing but was written based on the celestial events being
presented symbolically to the Roman Imperial Community. The second view was held
by many godly people – Martin Franzmann being one of them and the editorial
board of TLSB (p. 2195 – 95AD). It is based on the notion that John should be
old (cp. 2 and 3 John) and the life of the Church was mostly disturbed by
Romans. The last [the correct one :)] is based on the understanding that the
great tribulation is not a persecution of Roman on Christian, but a persecution
Christian Jews endured by non-Messianic Jewish community during The Jewish War
(66 – 70AD).
Structure: (for a possible structure see the
insert on Leviticus).
a. ch. 1, Introduction in the Revelation
b. ch. 2 – 3, 7
Churches
c. ch. 4 – 5,
Ascension of Jesus
d. ch. 6 –
8:5, 7 Seals
d’. ch. 8:6 –
12, 7 Trumpets
c’. ch. 13 – 15,
Ascension of the Church
b’. ch. 16 – 17,
7 Bowls
a’. ch. 18 –
22, Conclusion of the ministry
Main
themes: Most often
Revelation is taken as a scary and depressing book full of tragic or traumatic
description. For sure, there are pages and pages of martyrdom stories. At the
same time, Revelation is the book of hope and comfort. As usual, one needs to
read it to the End. The Church – represented by the seven churches – is enduring
the troublesome time of great tribulation. To a point everything looks bad,
devastating, and even ruined. Yet, at the very end the wave of repentances
begins (ch. 18) which leads to the everlasting marriage feast of the Lamb.
Main
Characters: Jesus,
John, representatives of the 7 churches, 24 elders, 4 living creatures, beast
of the sea, beast of land etc.
Reflection
in other parts of the Bible: To fully comprehend the content of Revelation the listener/reader need
to have a deep understanding of the previous 65 books of the Bible. Apart from
seeing Jesus as the King of kings and the LORD of lords, one needs to see the
mese of creation (1:17 – Gen. 2:21); sacrificial system with its ministers,
calendar, and sacred spaces; role of angels; symbolism of land and sea
etc.
Lutheran
teaching: The Book
of Concord uses 12:9 – Satan, ancient serpent – as a description of rebellion
against the ministry of the Word of God [SA III, VIII:5; LC III:65; 111].
The usage of
Sunday as the Day of the Lord – worship day – is based on Rev. 1:10 [AC
XXVIII:60].
Lutheran
hymnody:
LSB 676 –
Behold a Host, Arrayed in White.
LSB 395 – O
Morning Star, How Fair and Bright
Relevancy
of the Book: Reading
the Book of Revelation has many benefits for a believer. First, we always need
to remember that the Judgement will begin from the Church – Jesus addresses 7
churches and only after that His judgement goes into the world. Second, this
judgement/evaluation process is eminent. Regardless of our level of symbolic
readings into the meaning of the Book, He is coming, He is coming for sure. Third,
however troublesome, scary, and dangerous the great tribulation looks like, the
faithful ones will be delivered. Sometimes they will be delivered from
troubles, sometimes God will stay with the believers through persecutions and
will greet us at the entrance to the Marriage Feast of the Lamb.
No comments:
Post a Comment