The book of the Revelation of Jesus Christ is quite possibly the most widely misinterpreted book in the entire Bible. This is more than apparent when taking into account the great variety of interpretations which have been extrapolated from the book over the last 200 years (they can't all be right, of course). For this reason I am writing a general commentary on this book in a series of short installments here. It is my hope and prayer that the reader would gain understanding where there once was none, and would gain a sense of peace on a subject (that of "the end-times") where there is so little peace nowadays.
That being said, I feel driven to remind the participant who is considering joining me here that the book of Revelation, however liberally misinterpreted in the recent past, is still a part of the whole of scripture passed down to us by our ancestors, and as such is just as important to the overall message of the scripture as other more easily understood books like Matthew, Romans, or James, and ought not simply be swept under the rug as unimportant. God would not have included this final book of Revelation if He never meant for it to be successfully understood, and understood to the strengthening of the church universal.
One more comment before I begin. I do not pretend to know everything on this subject. However, I am not hesitant to say that my studies over the last few years in eschatology (the study of last things) have brought me to some simple conclusions that I believe are indeed what John the revelator - and the audience to whom he wrote - plainly understood the book to be referring.
Having thus said, we will proceed with installment 1.1, in which we will discover that the very first sentence of Revelation contains a major key to properly interpreting the whole book!
No comments:
Post a Comment