Onward to Victory: The Message of the Book of Revelation for Today’S Christians

By Pieter Kriel

Apart from a few well-known passages, the book of Revelation is a mystery to most Christians. The terrible images that are used are difficult to understand, and the little we do understand seems to present a picture of doom and gloom.

However, the book of Revelation was written to comfort the persecuted believers who were facing daily onslaughts by the forces of evil. It has a powerful message for the believers of all ages, including todays believers. If you can get past all the seemingly incomprehensible imagery and unlock the code, you will find that its message is an integral part of the message that we find in the rest of the Bible. In fact, it is like the tip of the spear. Most of the important themes in the Bible as a whole find their fulfillment in the book of Revelation.

The purpose of this book is not to give some radical new interpretation of the book of Revelation. It is to remain faithful to the message of the Bible as a whole while opening this wonderful but often misunderstood part of Gods Word for todays believers. This book will help you not only to understand the message of Revelation but also to apply it to your own life. This will help you to persevere through difficulties and persecution until the victory of Christ is fully enforced in all of creation.

A study guide is included so that you can also use the book for group Bible study.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Partridge Publishing Africa
• Release date: Aug 31, 2015
• ISBN: 9781482808889

Pieter Kriel

Pieter Kriel is a missionary pastor who has worked cross-culturally among the Zulu people of KwaZulu-Natal province of South Africa. He studied at the University of Stellenbosch, where he obtained the following qualifications: BA (biblical subjects), BA (Hons) in anthropology, BTh, licentiate in theology, and MTh Later he obtained a PhD from the University of Pretoria. His passion is to disciple and train believers to understand the Bible so that they can do the task to that God has called them to do. He has written a lot of training materials that are translated into many languages. This explanation of the message of Revelation comes from the passion to open the message of the Bible for ordinary believers.

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Copyright © 2015 by Pieter Kriel.

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Contents

Foreword

Session 1:  Introduction To The Book Of Revelation

Session 2: Revelation 1:1-20   Prologue To The Book Of Revelation

Session 3: Revelation 1:1-20   Prologue To The Book Of Revelation

Session 4: Revelation 2:1-3:22   The Letters To The Seven Churches

Appendix:  The Nicolaitans In The Letters To Ephesus And Pergamum

Session 5: Revelation 2:1-3:22   The Letters To The Seven Churches

Session 6: Revelation 2:1-3:22   The Letters To The Seven Churches

Session 7: Revelation 2:1-3:22   The Letters To The Seven Churches

Session 8: Revelation 2:1-3:22   The Letters To The Seven Churches

Session 9: Revelation 2:1-3:22   He Letters To The Seven Churches

Session 10: Revelation 2:1-3:22   The Letters To The Seven Churches

Session 11: Revelation 4:1-8:5   The Seven Seals (The Prelude In Heaven Part 1)

Session 12: Revelation 4:1-8:5   The Seven Seals (The Prelude In Heaven Part 2)

Session 13: Revelation 4:1-8:5   The Seven Seals

Session 14: Revelation 4:1-8:5   The Seven Seals

Session 15: Revelation 4:1-8:5   The Seven Seals

Session 16: Revelation 8:1-5   The Seven Seals

Session 17: Revelation 8:6-11:19   The Seven Trumpets

Session 18: Revelation 8:6-11:19   The Seven Trumpets

Session 19: Revelation 8:6-11:19   The Seven Trumpets

Session 20: Revelation 8:6-11:19   The Seven Trumpets

Session 21: Revelation 8:6-11:19   The Seven Trumpets

Session 22: Revelation 12:1-14:20   The Seven Significant Signs

Session 23: Revelation 12:1-14:20   The Seven Significant Signs

Session 24: Revelation 12:1-14:20   The Seven Significant Signs

Session 25: Revelation 12:1-14:20   The Seven Significant Signs

Appendix:  Testing The Prophets

Session 26: Revelation 12:1-14:20   The Seven Significant Signs

Session 27: Revelation 15:1-16:21   The Seven Last Plagues

Session 28: Revelation 15:1-16:21   The Seven Last Plagues

Session 29: Revelation 17:1-20:15   The Triumph Of The Almighty God

Session 30: Revelation 17:1-20:15   The Triumph Of The Almighty God

Session 31: Revelation 17:1-20:15   The Triumph Of The Almighty God

Appendix:  The Structure Of The Book Of Revelation Reinforces Its Message

Session 32: Revelation 17:1-20:15   The Triumph Of The Almighty God

Appendix:  The Millennium

Session 33: Revelation 21:1-22:5   The New Heaven And The New Earth

Session 34: Revelation 22:6-21   Epilogue

Daystar Congregation-Based Discipleship Training

Acknowledgment: I am deeply indebted to the insights found in the following two commentaries on Revelation:

E.P. Groenewald, Die openbaring van Johannes, Kaapstad, N.G. Kerk-Uitgewers, 1986

L. Morris, The Revelation of St. John, Grand Rapids, Eerdmans, 1969

All Scripture references taken from the NIV, except where otherwise indicated.

Scripture taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version. ©Copyright 1973, 1987, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan Bible Publishers.

FOREWORD

Apart from a few well-known passages, the book of Revelation is a mystery to most Christians. The terrible images that are used are difficult to understand and the little we do understand, seems to present a picture of doom and gloom.

However, the book of Revelation was written to comfort the persecuted believers who were facing daily onslaughts by the forces of evil. It has a powerful message for the believers of all ages, including today’s believers. If you can get past all the seemingly incomprehensible imagery and unlock the code, you will find that its message is an integral part of the message that we find in the rest of the Bible. In fact, it is like the tip of the spear. Most of the important themes in the Bible as a whole find their fulfilment in the book of Revelation.

The purpose of this book is not to give some radical new interpretation of the book of Revelation. It is to remain faithful to the message of the Bible as a whole, while opening this wonderful but often misunderstood part of God’s Word for today’s believers. This book will help you not only to understand the message of Revelation, but also to apply it to your own life. This will help you to persevere through difficulties and persecution until the victory of Christ is fully enforced in all of creation.

It is my prayer that the One who lives among the seven lampstands (the church) will meet you as you study his revelation to his followers.

Pieter Kriel

SESSION 1:

INTRODUCTION TO THE

BOOK OF REVELATION

1. INTRODUCTION

For most Christians the book of Revelation is difficult to understand. The images that are used in it are foreign to most of us. It has often been interpreted in such a way as to portray a dark future of persecution. When interpreted in such a way, it seems as if it has nothing to do with the rest of the Bible message about the victory of Christ. So we rather read other Bible books with more comforting messages and shy away from the terrible disasters of which we read in Revelation. Therefore, apart from a few well-known passages, like the letters to the seven churches and the description of the new Jerusalem in the last two chapters, it remains for all practical purposes a closed book for most Christians.

Yet the book was never intended to be used in this way. It was intended as a book of comfort for the persecuted church and if we read it properly, it has a great message for the church of today. The purpose of this book is to help Christians find what Christ, the head of the church, wants to say to His people through the book of Revelation.

2. HISTORICAL BACKGROUND

The book of Revelation was written during a time when the church was persecuted. The fact that John was exiled to the island of Patmos, is in keeping with the situation of persecution. At the same time there are no concrete historical events mentioned in the book that can help us pinpoint the date. Scholars point to different periods during which the early church was persecuted, like the time of emperors Nero and Galba. Although we cannot be certain, the most likely time seems to be the one supported by the early Christian tradition, which was towards the end of the reign of emperor Domitian, which was around AD 96.

3. THE AUTHOR

Scholars have gone into long debates about who the John was that wrote Revelation as well as the gospel and letters of John. The truth is that there is just not enough evidence to make a definitive pronouncement. The tradition in the early church accepted that it was the apostle John.

4. WAYS IN WHICH THE BOOK HAS HISTORICALLY BEEN INTERPRETED

The way in which we approach the interpretation of Revelation will have a big influence on the results of our interpretation. Therefore it is very important that we are clear in our minds on how we are going to interpret the book.

We can summarize the ways in which people have interpreted the book through the ages into four main categories:

a. It was just written for the early church in its situation

In this interpretation, the book was just meant for the early church in its situation in the Roman empire. This interpretation makes the book very meaningful for the people of the time, but apart from the fact that it gives us some insight into the historical situation of the early church, it means that the book is basically meaningless for believers of later generations who do not share the situation of the early church.

b. It is a prophecy which foretells the history of mankind from the time of Jesus up to the second coming

Although this interpretation makes the book very relevant for later generations, there are some serious drawbacks to this way of interpreting the book.

Firstly, if the book just concerns the things that had not yet happened at the time when the book was written, it would mostly have been meaningless to the church of the time when it was written.

Secondly, most of the people who try to interpret Revelation in this way, tie the prophecies to things that happened in Europe, which makes it meaningless to believers from other parts of the world.

The third problem is that the people who follow this way of interpretation come to different conclusions. One interpreter will say that a certain passage refers to a certain event in history, while another will say the same passage refers to a different event.

c. The book is mainly concerned with the things that will happen at the end of time

People who hold this view, say that apart from the first few chapters the book is mainly concerned with the events at the end of history when Christ will come again. The problem is that apart from informing us that God has an ultimate purpose, this interpretation makes the book more of less meaningless for the people living at the time when the book was written, as well as for all other subsequent generations except the last one in whose time the events will unfold.

d. The book is only about ideas and principles expressed in poetic form

This viewpoint states that the book is not really about historical events. It is not about what was happening at the time when it was written, it is not about the things that would happen in history and it is not about the things that are going to happen at the second coming of Jesus. The book is really a poetic expression of ideas and principles and shows the ways in which God acts throughout history. We must not try to tie the poetic description down in concrete interpretation.

If we follow this interpretation, it means that the book is relevant to all generations. The problem is that this interpretation totally ignores the historical situation from which the book emerged.

Thus it is clear that none of these ways of interpretation gives us a complete key to unlocking the mysteries of Revelation. Before we can come to a proper interpretation of the book, we must also consider the type of literature that we are dealing with.

5. THE TYPE OF LITERATURE

The book of Revelation is generally taken to be apocalyptic literature. Apocalyptic literature was a type of literature which flourished especially in the three hundred year long period from about two hundred years before Christ to about one hundred years after Christ.

a. Characteristics of apocalyptic literature:

Some of the characteristics of apocalyptic literature are:

i. Normally apocalyptic documents pretends to be a revelation given to some great figure of the past, like Abraham, Moses or Ezra, by some celestial being like an angel.

ii. The message of the apocalyptic books is often portrayed as a prophecy by the historical figure that is said to have written the book. Since the real writer lived many years later, he could prophecy the things that happened in the time between the life of the supposed author and himself very accurately, but the prophecies about the things that still had to happen after his own time, became very vague and inaccurate. In fact scholars can determine the time at which these documents were written by looking at up to which date the prophecies are accurate!

iii. The message is usually expressed through symbols. These symbols could sometimes be very bizarre.

iv. This type of literature often appeared in difficult times and expressed the belief that the troubles experienced are not the last word. God would intervene in his own good time to destroy evil in a dramatic way.

v. The writers of these documents were mostly very pessimistic about the present world. They did not think that mankind could overcome evil, therefore God would have to intervene to bring the victory. This deliverance was often tied to the coming of the Messiah that God would send.

vi. Because the victory would come from God and not because people lived better lives, the writers of most apocalyptic documents did not pay much attention to ethics (the right way for people to live).

b. Differences between Revelation and other apocalyptic literature

We see many of these characteristics in the book of Revelation. It makes use of apocalyptic symbolism and it looks forward to the establishment of God’s Kingdom and to the new heaven and the new earth. Angels and heavenly beings also play an important role in delivering the revelation. Yet there are also important differences from the other apocalyptic books which we should bear in mind when we try to understand the book or Revelation correctly.

i. There was a difference between apocalyptic books and prophetic books. Yet John was not putting words into the mouth of a historic figure afterwards, like other writers of apocalyptic literature. He was proclaiming the Word of God and therefore he often called the book a prophecy. (See Revelation 22:7,10,18-19 for example.) Just look at how he starts the book:

The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show his servants what must soon take place. He made it known by sending his angel to his servant John, 2 who testifies to everything he saw—that is, the word of God and the testimony of Jesus Christ. 3 Blessed is the one who reads the words of this prophecy, and blessed are those who hear it and take to heart what is written in it, because the time is near. (Revelation 1:1-3)

ii. Whereas most apocalyptic books did not worry much about ethical issues, Revelation, like the earlier prophetic books, often urges people to live in the right way. We find good examples of this in the letters to the seven churches (Revelation 2:5, 16, 21, 22; Revelation 3:3, 19).

iii. Apocalyptic books were written under somebody else’s name (see point a of the description of apocalyptic literature). In Revelation the writer gives his own name (Revelation1:4).

iv. The typical apocalyptic pessimism about the present world is absent from Revelation. Although John draws the terribleness of evil realistically, he still sees history as the arena in which God’s redemption is worked out. Therefore the book is fundamentally optimistic.

v. While most writers of apocalyptic books went back to the past and prophesied the things that happened in the time between the person who is supposed to have written the book and the real author, John does not do this. As a true prophet, he starts in his own time and speaks about what must happen in the future.

vi. The apocalyptic books normally contain curious visions which cannot be understood until somebody like an angel comes to explain the vision. Although angels sometimes explain some of John’s visions, very often the visions in Revelation are just recounted without any explanation and the reader has to make sense of it himself.

vii. Whereas the writers of the apocalyptic books usually look forward to the Messiah who must come to solve the problems of the present world, John writes of the Messiah who has already come. This Messiah won the victory by dying on the cross.

6. IS REVELATION STRUCTURED IN A STRAIGHT LINE OR A CYCLICAL MOVEMENT?

Another issue that we have to consider before we can decide on how we should understand the book of Revelation, is whether the events in the book are portrayed as following linearly on one another or whether the book was structured in a cyclical way.

Some interpreters look at the three series of seven which are found in the book: the seven seals, the seven trumpets and the seven bowls. From this they deduce that the three series depicts the same cycle of events. They feel that the book was structured in such a way as to repeat the same events, but with each retelling the events move closer to the last judgment. They see the structure as a progressive parallelism. Although the groups of seven play a very important role in the structure of the book, this cyclical scheme seems to be an artificial interpretation forced on the book.

The other approach is to see everything in the book as following one another in a linear way. Some of the people who follow this approach, say that the prophecies predict the history of empires and states that will rise and fall, while others say that it is prophesying the history of the church through the ages. Both these groups sometimes try to interpret history in the light of the prophecies to determine how close we are to the second coming of Christ. As we have seen above, the problem is however that everyone comes to a different conclusion.

In the light of all this it seems best to use the different series of seven as a key to the structure of the book, but not to think of a cyclical structure.

We can compare it to a landscape in which there are different mountain ranges, one before the other stretching to the horizon. To describe the landscape you can sometimes describe the individual mountains and sometimes aspects of the overall view. One commentator, Leon Morris, describes it as follows: For John the end is the significant thing. He does not take in the whole in any one vision or any one series of visions. He deals with different aspects, sometimes covering the same ground from different points of view and sometimes taking in different features of the landscape. Thus we may legitimately expect some things to recur in the visions, but always new details will make their appearance. (Morris 1969:93)

7. THE STRUCTURE OF THE BOOK

Although people using this approach also differ in some of the finer detail, a combination of the structures used by E.P. Groenewald and Leon Morris seems to give us a useful key for our study of Revelation.

a. Prologue (1:1-20)

i. Introduction (1:1-3).

ii. Salutation (1: 4-8).

iii. The first vision (1:9-20).

b. The letters to the churches (2:1-3: 22)

i. To the church of Ephesus (2:1-7).

ii. To the church of Smyrna (2:8-1 1).

iii. To the church of Pergamum (2: 12-17).

iv. To the church of Thyatira (2:18-29).

v. To the church of Sardis (3:1-6).

vi. To the church of Philadelphia (3:7-13).

vii. To the church of Laodicea (3:14-22).

c. The seven seals (4:1-8:5)

i. The prelude in heaven (4:1-5:14)

1. The heavenly throne room (4:1-11).

2. The unopened book (5:1-5).

3. The Lion of the tribe of Judah (5:5-14).

ii. The first seal (6:1-2).

iii. The second seal (6:3-4).

iv. The third seal (6:5-6).

v. The fourth seal (6:7-8).

vi. The fifth seal (6:9-11).

vii. The sixth seal (6:12-17).

viii. An interlude (7:1-17).

ix. The seventh seal (8:1-5).

d. The seven trumpets (8:6-11:19)

i. The first trumpet (8:6-7).

ii. The second trumpet (8:8-9).

iii. The third trumpet (8:10-11).

iv. The fourth trumpet (8:12).

v. The eagle (8:13).

vi. The fifth trumpet (9:1-12).

vii. The sixth trumpet (9:13-21).

viii. An interlude (10:1-11:14).

ix. The seventh trumpet (11:15-19).

e. Seven significant signs (12:1-14:20)

i. The woman clothed with the sun (12:1-6).

ii. Satan cast out (12:7-12).

iii. War between Satan and the woman and her Son (12:13-17).

iv. The beast from the sea (13:1-10).

v. The beast from the earth (13:11-18).

vi. The Lamb on mount Zion (14:1-5).

vii. The harvest of the earth (14:6-20).

f. The seven last plagues (15:1-16:21)

i. Preliminaries (15:1-8).

ii. The first bowl (16:1-2).

iii. The second bowl (16:3).

iv. The third bowl (16:4-7).

v. The fourth bowl (16:8-9).

vi. The fifth bowl (16:10-11).

vii. The sixth bowl (16:12-16).

viii. The seventh bowl (16:17-21).

g. The triumph of almighty God (17:1-20:15)

i. The judgment of the great whore (17:1-18).

ii. The judgment of Babylon (18:1-19:5).

iii. The marriage of the Lamb (19:6-10).

iv. The final victory (19:11-20:15).

h. A new heaven and a new earth (21:1-22:5)

i. ‘God… with them' (21:1-4).

ii. Separation between good and evil (21:5-8).

iii. The holy city (21:9-21).

iv. ‘No night there’ (21:22-22:5).

i. Epilogue (22:6-21)

8. THE USE OF NUMBERS AND SYMBOLS IN THE BOOK OF REVELATION

a. Do not look at the picture, look for the meaning

Because Revelation makes use of symbols, the combination of many symbols can create very disturbing pictures if we try to visualise them. We should not try to draw a visual picture of the images used. What we should try to understand, is what the writer is trying to tell us through the symbols.

b. The meaning of the numbers

Numbers also play an important symbolical role in Revelation. We should understand this against the background of the Bible as a whole.

i. Numbers are not just used as numbers

In the first place, it should be understood that numbers are not always used to denote the literal mathematical number. The numbers two, two or three, and three of four are sometimes used in the sense of a few. Ten is sometimes used to mean quite a number of times. Forty was often used to denote a generation or for quite a large number. Thousand, ten thousand and forty thousand were used as round numbers that indicated an indefinitely large number. In other words, it is used to say very many.

ii. The symbolical meaning of numbers

Secondly, some numbers also have symbolical and theological significance. Here are some of the most important ones:

Multiples of the numbers are often used to increase the intensity of what is being said. For example when Revelation speaks of 144 000, it is 12 times 12, multiplied by a thousand, which in its turn is again 10 times 10 times 10.

9. CONCLUSION: OUR APPROACH TO INTERPRETING THE BOOK OF REVELATION

In the light of everything we have seen up to now, we now have to decide how we are going to approach our study of Revelation. Here are some fundamental principles that we must keep in mind as we study the book:

a. Revelation is part of the canon

Under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, the church has included the book of Revelation in the list of authoritative books accepted as part of the Bible (the canon of the Bible). Therefore the book has a message for the church of all times, not just a particular time.

b. Revelation is a prophetic book

One of the characteristics of Biblical prophecy is that it is fulfilled more than once. Different aspects of such a prophecy can go into fulfilment at different times and in different ways. We can compare it to a mountain on