Douglas Connelly - The Book of Revelation Made Clear: A User-Friendly Look at the Bibles Most Complicated Book

T he book of Revelation makes us nervous. Even a person who has never read a word of the Bible has heard about Revelation (or, as its usually incorrectly called, Revelations). Weve heard the words Antichrist or the Beast or the number 666; weve been told that Revelation talks about the end of the world and we get nervous just thinking about what the book might say.

When we get enough courage to actually read the book, it starts out pretty mild instructions to some churches, scenes of Gods throne in heaven. But it gets ugly fast. Suddenly we see catastrophic wars and violent earthquakes and huge hailstones! We close the book in a cold sweat and decide to read something a little less threatening.

But our curiosity continues. What does this weird book say about the future and particularly about my future? How many disasters will I have to face and when will the end come? So we go back to Revelation and try again.

The purpose of this Blockheads guide is to help you understand Revelation. I will admit right at the beginning that I dont have all the answers no one fully understands this book. We all walk away from it with some mysteries still unsolved. My goal is to help you grasp what we can understand and give you some options in the difficult spots. You wont agree with everything I say, and thats OK. Christians have debated the meaning of Revelation for almost two thousand years. In the end, I hope you will at least wrestle through the book with me and come away blessed.

Prepare to Be Blessed!

What prompted me to tackle this book in the first place is that Revelation is the only section of the Bible that promises a blessing on those who read it. The blessing is promised in verse 3 of the very first chapter:

Blessed is the one who reads aloud the words of this prophecy, and blessed are those who hear it and take to heart what is written in it.

Revelation 1:3

God will bless those who read and heed the book of Revelation. I think there are at least four ways you will be blessed by studying this book.

First, you will see Jesus in a new, powerful way. Revelation unveils Jesus majesty and power and greatness like no other New Testament book. Jesus is not some poor, lonely man, desperately trying to find people who will believe his message. He is the conquering King and Lord of all.

A second blessing is that we see in Revelation the fulfillment of human history. God outlines for us how he will bring everything to completion. There wont be any loose ends. Our world is moving toward a goal. We arent just a tiny speck in a vast universe; this planet is the center of Gods attention. He created it with a plan in mind, and he is guiding it to the completion of that plan.

Another blessing of reading and understanding Revelation is that the book will show us Christs final victory over Satan and all that is evil. Sin and rebellion against God seem to have the upper hand in our world right now. Satan is the prince and the god of this age, but Satan will never triumph. His doom is certain, and it is sealed in the pages of Revelation.

If all these blessings arent enough, Revelation also makes it clear that followers of Christ are the ultimate winners in Gods plan. God doesnt tell us this to make us proud; he tells us so we will be confident in Gods power to do what he says he will do. God has the future in his control!

Revelation is the only absolutely trustworthy guide to the future that we have. Futurologists may speculate about the future and prophets may claim to see certain events in the future and we may all dream about (or dread) the future at times, but God has given us a totally reliable guide that we can trust with absolute confidence. We may not understand every detail, but we know that, in the end, God wins.

In light of these great blessings, its amazing that so many people avoid Revelation. Ive even heard pastors say with some pride that they never preach from the book! Only Satan could fog us that badly.

But What Does It Mean?

We will talk more about how to interpret what we read in Revelation as we move through the book, but I want to give you a heads up on the various approaches that are used by people who try to understand what Revelation says. I have found four basic approaches to the interpretation of this book.

The make-believe approach. Some interpreters of Revelation believe that Johns writings have no connection with any real events, past or present. One writer says the book is simply the ecstatic musings of an old man. In this view, the book of Revelation is just an ancient fantasy novel.