Interpreting Revelation

Bible Study delivered by Pastor Max Doner: https://www.youtube.com/live/LIIDAcaufD8?si=lgDuoWj0zGM0NDiq

Revelation is a book many find difficult to understand. There is good reason for this. It is written in a way that is very different from the way the rest of the New Testament is written.

Unlike the rest of the New Testament, which is written in ordinary language that is relatively easy to understand, Revelation is largely written in highly symbolic visual imagery. It sets forth the symbolic word-pictures that strike us as very strange and difficult to understand. This style of writing requires a different method of interpretation if it is to be understood, and if the confusion that arises in the readers’ mind is to be resolved.

The purpose of this article is to help remove some of the mystery from this book, by providing a general overview of how we are to understand and interpret it.

The Book of Revelation was written in order to comfort believers in the midst of persecution, to assure them of their ultimate victory in that conflict, and to fill them with confidence and joy as they fight the good fight of faith.

Therefore, it is sad that most believers do not obtain those blessings, because they do not understand the meaning and message of this book. My purpose is to clear up this confusion by providing a framework that will enable us to properly interpret and understand the message Revelation contains.

Just as a lock opens easily when you have the right key, Revelation becomes easy to understand when you employ the proper method of interpretation.

There are some unique characteristics that Revelation possesses, that when understood, provide the key to opening up the meaning and message of the book.

Let us then consider together how we are to interpret Revelation, and the principles we must employ if we are to comprehend the meaning and message of this book.

The first principle we must understand is that:

1A. The message of Revelation is conveyed by symbolic images.

As we read the Book of Revelation, we realize it is written in a completely different style than the vast majority of the books in the Bible. The vast majority of the books of the Bible are written in ordinary prose—that is, in the normal language of every day usage. We talk to each other in ordinary prose. I am talking to you now in ordinary prose.

However, the Book of Revelation is not primarily written in ordinary prose. To be sure, there is some ordinary prose in this book. We see ordinary prose in the introduction to the Book of Revelation, in 1:1-9. We see ordinary prose in the letters to the seven churches in chapters 2 and 3.

However, the vast majority of the Book of Revelation is written in the form of highly symbolic visual imagery. This means that it is written like a picture book, that uses symbolic images to convey its message, rather than using ordinary descriptive language to convey its message.

This highly symbolic language DOES represent various literal realities, but there is NOT a one-to-one correspondence between the symbols and the reality they represent. We cannot take symbolic language and literalize it.

For example, notice Revelation 1:13-16. Here we have a description of Jesus. And in the midst of the seven lampstands One like the Son of Man, clothed with a garment down to the feet and girded about the chest with a golden band. His head and hair were white like wool, as white as snow, and His eyes like a flame of fire; His feet were like fine brass, as if refined in a furnace, and His voice as the sound of many waters; He had in His right hand seven stars, out of His mouth went a sharp two-edged sword, and His countenance was like the sun shining in its strength.

Now it is obvious that Jesus does not literally have a sword coming out of His mouth, His feet are not literally made of burning brass, and He does not have literal flames coming out of His eye sockets. We cannot literalize this symbolic language. These are not actual descriptions of what is really there. Instead, they are symbolic descriptions that indicate a truth about what IS there.

This kind of highly symbolic and dramatically figurative language characterizes the Book of Revelation.

Perhaps it would help us to understand this concept by thinking about the parables Jesus used to teach His message. Jesus used word pictures to convey an idea, by creating a visual image in our minds by the stories He told.

These visual images were not meant to be taken literally—they were word pictures designed to convey an idea. The kingdom of God is not literally a fishing net, a pearl, or a treasure hidden in a field. Those are word pictures.

And in the same way, the word pictures in the Book of Revelation use visual symbols to convey an idea or concept to us as well.

So then, as you read about a lamb with seven horns and seven eyes, locusts with the faces of men, and a beast with seven heads and ten horns, you are not to think these things literally exist. You must understand that these are visual symbolic images that convey a message, and the message will only become clear when the symbolic picture is properly understood.

Symbolism characterizes this book. This symbolism extends even to the numbers that are used in the Book of Revelation. All of the numbers in the Book of Revelation are symbolic. None of them are to be taken literally. The only possible exception is the silence in heaven that lasts for one-half hour in Revelation 8:1. But all of the other numbers are certainly symbolic.

For example, when Revelation 1:4 talks about the seven Spirits of God, the number seven cannot be taken literally. We know that there is only one Spirit of God.

And so it is with all of the numbers in the Book of Revelation. They all have symbolic meanings. When these symbolic meanings are understood, then the message becomes clear.

The question then arises: How are we going to properly understand the symbolic language the Book of Revelation uses?

This brings us to our second principle for properly understand the Book of Revelation; and that is; not only do we see that the message of revelation is conveyed by symbolic images, secondly:

2A. The interpretation of the Book of Revelation is derived from the Old Testament.

There is not a symbol in the Book of Revelation that is not contained in the Old Testament.

As first century Christians read the Book of Revelation, they had no trouble understanding it because they were saturated with a knowledge of the Old Testament. Because of their knowledge of the Old Testament, they immediately knew what the symbols John used meant, because they knew how they were used in the Old Testament.

The connection between the Book of Revelation and the Old Testament is profound. Out of the 404 Verses in the Book of Revelation, 278 of those verses contain one or more references to Old Testament passages. Over 2/3 of the verses in the Book of Revelation contain allusions or references to Old Testament passages.

In fact, in this one book, there are over 500 allusions to Old Testament passages, compared to fewer than 200 in the rest of the entire New Testament combined.

The Book of Revelation, and the symbolic visual images, and the symbolic numerology it contains cannot be understood without understanding all that was written before it, especially the Old Testament.

For example:

- The four horsemen of Revelation, the white, red, black, and pale horses find their explanation in Zechariah, where colored horses also appear.

- The seven trumpet judgments and the seven vial judgments are an echo of the ten plagues Moses brought on Egypt, which helps us understand their meaning.

- The City of Babylon in Revelation 17 and 18 is to be understood in light of the Babylon that conquered Israel and took her captive for seventy years. Babylon is spoken of in 252 verses in the Old Testament.

- The locusts of Revelation 9 are to be understood by a study of locusts in Exodus and Joel.

- The Beast that rises out of the sea in Revelation 13, that is like a lion and a bear and a leopard, and has ten horns, can by understood by examining Daniel 7, where similar beasts are identified

In short, everything in the Book of Revelation, all the symbolic visual images it contains, find their explanation by a study of how they were used in the Old Testament.

The Bible is a self-interpreting book. As it says in the 1689 London Baptist Confession of Faith, in chapter 1, paragraph 9, “The infallible rule of interpretation of scripture is scripture itself. Therefore, when there is a question about the true and full sense of any scripture, it must be searched out by other places that speak more clearly.”

This brings us to our third principle for properly understanding the meaning and message of Revelation.

3A. The structure of the Book of Revelation is cyclic in nature.

Other books of the Bible are written in a linear fashion, in which the events early in the book precede the events that occur later in the book. They are written in the form of a linear chronology.

The Book of Revelation is NOT written as a linear chronology. In other words, it is non-consecutive in its structure. Just because one chapter follows another, does not necessarily mean that the events of the following chapter, are subsequent in time to the events of the previous chapter.

Instead, Revelation is written with a cyclic structure in which the time period between the first coming of Christ and the second coming of Christ is traversed over and over again. This journey between the first and second coming of Christ is made seven times, because each of those journeys emphasizes a different theme.

These seven cycles all occur in parallel with each other. They all cover the same time frame. They all cover the time period from the 1st to the 2nd coming of Christ.

Each cycle begins with the 1st coming of Christ, takes us on a journey through this age, and concludes with the second coming of Christ. The 2nd coming of Christ is described 7 times in this book, at the end of each of these cycles.

The first cycle, in chapters 1 - 3, describes the seven churches. In this first cycle we see what the warfare of the churches will look like all throughout the time between the first and second coming of Christ.

The second cycle, in chapters 4 – 7 describes the seven seals. In this second cycle we see what the works of the wicked look like all throughout the time between the first and second coming of Christ. Here is how the unsaved will behave throughout this age.

The third cycle, in chapters 8 – 11, describes the seven trumpets. In this third cycle, we see the temporal physical and spiritual judgments God will bring on the wicked for their evil works all throughout the time between the first and second coming of Christ.

The fourth cycle, in chapters 12 – 14, describes Satan and his helpers. In this fourth cycle we see what the work of Satan looks like all throughout the time between the first and second coming of Christ as he does his work through the Beast, the False Prophet, Babylon, and those with the mark of the Beast, all of which work together between the 1st and 2nd coming of Christ to oppose and persecute Christ and His people.

The fifth cycle, in chapters 15 – 16, describes the seven vials of wrath. In this fifth cycle we see God’s wrath poured out on the willfully defiant, all throughout the time between the first and second coming of Christ.

The sixth cycle, in chapters 17 – 19, describes the character and defeat of Babylon, the Beast and the False Prophet. In this sixth cycle we see the evil and the destruction of Satan’s helpers that occurs all throughout the time between the first and second coming of Christ.

The seventh cycle, in chapters 20 – 22, describes the binding and loosing of Satan. In this seventh cycle we see the safety and protection the church enjoys all throughout the time between the first and second coming of Christ. Here we have Satan bound and the church free to enter his kingdom of darkness and bring his people into Christ’s kingdom of light through the worldwide preaching of the Gospel. All throughout the Millennial Age, this symbolic thousand-year period, Satan is restrained so that the Gospel can be preached in all the world.

At the end of this age, after all the elect are saved, Satan is released for a short time, and raises up the antichrist and his transnational coalition of nations, there called Gog and Magog, to persecute the church nearly to extinction. But Christ returns, casts Satan and his helpers into the lake of fire, carries out the final judgment, and creates the new heaven and the new earth, where we will dwell forever.

Each of these seven cycles begins with the first coming of Christ, and each of them end with the second coming of Christ. This is why we have the second coming of Christ described seven times in the Book of Revelation.

Each of these seven cycles run in parallel with each other chronologically, so that the events described in each cycle occur concurrently with each other. Each of these cycles supply information about the same time period between the first and second coming of Christ that the others do not; with the result, that when all of the events in these seven cycles are added together, we then have a complete picture of what spiritual warfare between the first and second coming of Christ will look like.

This is a critically important key to use to unlock the meaning of the book. This parallel cyclic structure of the book, in which the time frame between the 1st and 2nd coming of Christ is covered 7 times, with each section emphasizing a different facet and theme of what will occur between the 1st and 2nd coming, is critically important to understand, if we are going to properly interpret this book.

1. Because we understand this parallel cyclic structure, we understand that events in one chapter do not necessarily chronologically follow the events of the preceding chapter.

In chapter 11, we have the second coming of Christ described, but in chapter 12 we have the birth of Christ described. This is because chapter 11 is at the end of the 3rd parallel cycle, and chapter 12 is at the beginning of the 4th parallel cycle, where once again, we are taken back to the beginning of this age. This 4th parallel cycle will take us up to the second coming of Christ in chapter 14, where once again we will revert back to the beginning of this age.

2. Because we understand this parallel cyclic structure, the same event can be described over several different chapters.

The destruction of Babylon is described in chapter 14, chapter 16, and chapter 18. This is because it is described in the 4th, 5th, and 6th parallel sections.

Each time this destruction takes place at the end of this age, and it is described in increasing detail.

The point is this: understanding the parallel cyclic structure of Revelation makes all of the chronological problems in interpreting the book disappear. Chronology ceases to be a problem, when the cyclic structure of the book is understood.

These then are the three principles we must understand if we are to comprehend the meaning and message of Revelation.

1. We must understand that the message of the Book of Revelation is conveyed by symbolic images. Neither the description of objects, nor the numbers that are used, are to the taken literally. They are not literally true, though they do, when properly interpreted, convey a literal truth.

2. We must understand that the interpretation of the Book of Revelation is found in the Old Testament. The explanation for all of the visual symbolic images in the Book of Revelation, and all the symbolic numbers used in the Book of Revelation, is to be found in the Old Testament. We must use the Bible to understand and interpret the Bible, and no where is this more true than when we seek to interpret the Book of Revelation.

3. We must understand that the structure of Revelation is cyclic, not linear. It covers the time period from the first coming of Christ to the second coming of Christ seven times. Each cycle presents a different aspect of the spiritual warfare that will take place throughout that period; and added together, we have a complete picture of the conflict between the kingdom of God and Satan’s kingdom, and what the outcome will be.

Revelation is written in a unique style; and therefore, we must use a unique approach to understand its meaning and message. We do not deal with it in the same way we deal with all the other books in the New Testament.