Is Revelation really that confusing?
August 9, 2008
As a church we decided to go through the book of Revelations. I told someone we were going to do that and they said, “Are you sure that you can do that? Isn’t that book too confusing and hard to understand?” Though admittedly there are many different symbols to consider, as a whole there is very little doubt to the overwhelming theme of the book, God is Sovereign over all creation. Similar to the exodus of Israel from Egypt, the plagues God reigned on Egypt were a display of God’s power over every “god” of Egypt. Essentially God was saying you were the sun, I will blot it out. You were the Nile, I will make it useless and turn it into blood. Over and over God showed His power over the powerless Egyptian gods.
The book of Revelation is very similar. The seal, trumpet, and vial judgments all are a show of God’s power and sovereignty over everything. You will notice that there are judgments that affect only the land, or only the sea, and sometimes only people. In the book of Revelation God is taking back the “title deed of the earth.” This world that has been controlled by the prince and power of the air, will be pryed one finger at a time.
Does this have anything to do with us? Everything! The same God of Revelation is the same God today. This is the God that we serve and nothing, absolutely nothing, can overtake the believer. “If God is for us, who then can be against us. He who spared not His only Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how will He not freely give us all things?” (Romans 8:31-32) Remember to not look at circumstances with your physical eyes, but with the eyes of faith. Even when it may seem like the Devil is having his way, make no mistake through the eyes of faith God is still in control. You can trust Him, He is a trustworthy God!
August 9, 2008 at 7:11 pm
I could not agree more with you. I too have puzzled over Revelation since I was a youth. Revelation begins with the charge that it is a message to show Jesus’ followers “the things that must shortly take place”. This clearly says that we need to understand the revelation message, yet it seems unclear. Why would God send us a message that we could not understand and then expect us to follow it? How could I understand the truth? This was the first challenge of Revelation to me.
A second challenge comes from the book of Matthew. Jesus said, “See that no one misleads you” . An example of how I might be misled comes from the very next verse in Matthew 24:5; “For many will come in My name, saying, ‘I am the Christ’ and will mislead many.” This verse can be interpreted two ways. One can read verse 5 to say that many will come in Christ’s name claiming to be the Christ, or read it to say that many will come in Christ’s name (acknowledging that He is the Christ) and will mislead many. The first interpretation leads you to believe that many false Christs will arise, where the second means that people who acknowledge Christ as Lord will do the misleading. In other words believers could mislead believers without even knowing it. Therefore, it is not unexpected that people will interpret portions of the Bible in different ways. So whose interpretation should I believe and follow? And, if I become so certain of a particular interpretation could I be misled and set up for a fall when the end times come.
The bottom line, Jesus challenged me to try to understand the Book of Revelation and to not be misled. As I studied and prayed for a way to address these challenges a thought came to me; could it be that Jesus has left us the information we need to unlock the mystery of the Book of Revelation elsewhere in the Bible? This began my effort to assemble all the verses in the Bible that address the end times and, through the wonders of word processing, insert them into the Book of Revelations where they appeared to fit. As I began to bring similar subjects from across the Bible together, it occurred to me that similar subjects could be brought together within Revelation itself. This is what started me on the journey to write a book that describes this spiritual journey. It is an amazing story that is different than what I expected when I began. Jesus has provided us what we need to unlock Revelation.
The key is that Revelation was written out of chronological order at God’s direction to conceal its meaning until the end-times. But why would the Apostle John, who was directed to write the revelation by God, write it out of order? The answer is that he didn’t. He was told to “Write in a book what you see.” Do you see the key? Revelation is confusing because it appears to be written in chronological order but is not. It is like a play that God showed John, but several scenes were shown to him out of chronological order. As a result each generation could read events from their own time into the revelation events. This would lead them to believe that they were living in the end-times while preserving the true meaning of the revelation to be discovered as the end-times draws near.
As I worked to reorder the Revelation text using information throughout the Bible, the interpretation emerged. I had no idea how the pieces fit until the reordering was complete. Once begun, my spine tingled as each chapter finally fell into place. It is an amazing story that is different than what I expected when I began. Jesus has provided us what we need to unlock Revelation.
Charles Huettner, Author
Jesus Reveals Revelation
http://www.jesusrevealsrevelation.com