The Book of Revelation - Lesson 1: The Background of Revelation

[Music] [Applause] you when Jesus died many of his disciples and admirers believed that he had experienced his final defeat some even believed that all his teaching and miracles were for nothing what his disciples didn't understand until the third day was the Jesus death wasn't the end of the story in fact his resurrection proved that his death was actually his victory resurrection allowed his disciples to understand Jesus and industry suffering and death from a completely new perspective and when John wrote the book of Revelation his readers needed this new perspective to the early church faced persecution from the powerful Roman Empire and many Christians began to view this as a defeat but John encouraged his readers to find both comfort and confidence in the victory that Jesus achieved at his resurrection he wanted them to understand that even if their lives ended in martyrdom that wouldn't be the end of their story either eventually Jesus would consummate his kingdom and every believer that had ever lived would share in his victory this is the first lesson in our series on the book of Revelation sometimes called the apocalypse or the apocalypse of John we've entitled this lesson the background of Revelation in this lesson we'll see that revelations context and setting can help us understand its original meaning and apply its message to our own lives in the modern world this lesson on the background of Revelation will divide into three parts first we'll explore the historical background of the book of Revelation second we'll discuss its theological background and third we'll consider its literary background let's begin with the historical background of Revelation the book of Revelation has fascinated both believers and unbelievers ever since it was written but different interpreters understand the symbols and imagery of the book in very different ways the strange creatures the cosmic battles the plagues and judgments some interpreters find these images so confusing that they lose all hope of understanding this part of Scripture but the truth is that much of this confusion stems from our unfamiliarity with the historical context of the book so in order to learn how to interpret and apply revelation rightly it helps to understand something about its history there's great value in being able to understand the setting of each of the biblical books I wouldn't say it's essential mind you God's Word has an eternal function and people can relate to it directly and if you don't have to know the original setting it doesn't stop it from being true having said that we're going to get far more out of the Bible if we understand the original setting which was written and we can understand that it was written to people in this culture and this time with these particular issues and when we see that we can get a better handle on well how does that apply to us even though we're in a different situation become as it were match over or what the original message meant and so a great deal of effort is given into trying to find historical setting of the books and sometimes it comes doesn't come up with great answers but sometimes we can get a very good understanding of what the original context was when we get that in a much better position to apply from that context to our aim we'll look at three fundamental aspects of the historical background of Revelation its author its date of composition and its original audience let's begin with the author of Revelation will explore the author of the book of Revelation in two ways first we'll see that the traditional attribution of the book to the Apostle John is reliable and second will explore John's location and experience when he wrote it let's turn first to the traditional view that the Apostle John wrote the book of Revelation the author of the book of Revelation identified himself by the relatively common name John he mentioned his name in Revelation chapter 1 verses 1 4 and 9 and chapter 22 verse 8 but he didn't specifically identify himself as John the Apostle he did mention that he faithfully served Jesus and that he had suffered for the kingdom of God and it seems clear from the book that he was a prophet but these general details aren't sufficient to demonstrate that the man who wrote the book of Revelation was the Apostle John even so there are at least two good reasons to affirm the traditional view that the Apostle John wrote this book for one thing many credible early witnesses testified that he was the author as early as the 2nd century AD Church Fathers like Justin Martyr Irenaeus and clement of alexandria identified the apostle john as the author of the book of revelation Justin made this claim in his dialogue with try foe chapter 81 Justin's testimony is particularly valuable because he lived in Ephesus in the early 2nd century among people who had known John personally Irenaeus mentions John's authorship in his work against heresies book 4 chapter 18 section 11 his testimony is also very helpful because Irenaeus was a disciple of Polycarp who in turn had been a disciple of the Apostle John as a result Irenaeus was in a superior position to know which works John had actually written finally clement of alexandria seems to have assumed John's authorship in his work who is the rich man that shall be saved section 42 a second reason to affirm the traditional view that the Apostle John wrote the book of Revelation is its vocabulary there are many distinctive similarities between the vocabulary in the book of Revelation and the vocabulary in John's other works for the sake of time we'll mention just two first within the New Testament the designation of Christ as the word or logos is found only in Revelation chapter 19 verse 13 and John chapter 1 verses 1 and 14 similar language also appears in 1st John chapter 1 verse 1 and second Jesus statement whoever is thirsty let him come in Revelation chapter 22 verse 17 is paralleled in our New Testament only by his statement if anyone is thirsty let him come to me and drink in John chapter 7 verse 37 despite these strong arguments supporting the Apostle John is the author of the book of Revelation critics as early as the 3rd century have disputed his authorship for example the 3rd century Bishop Dionysius of Alexandria pointed out that the author of Revelation identified himself as John while the author of John's gospel and letters never told us his name Dionysius also called attention to other differences between revelation and John's other works such as their different literary styles and use of Greek and some critics continue to make similar objections today of course there are good explanations for why one author might have produced works that look different for example John may have attached his name to this work so that people would be certain that it came from an authoritative source or he may have stated his name because he had been commissioned by Christ himself to deliver this book to seven specific churches and just because John didn't name himself in some writings is no reason to conclude that he would never name himself in any writings furthermore the stylistic differences between revelation and John's other writings can also be easily explained the visions John recorded in the book of Revelation are very different from the revelation he received during Jesus earthly ministry also unlike John's other biblical writings revelation was written and on apocalyptic style which probably occasioned many of the differences in his literary style and use of Greek these differences might also have resulted from John's different purposes for writing and even from his different relationships with his various original audiences in summary the evidence favoring the Apostle John's authorship substantially outweighs the evidence against it for this reason in these lessons will affirm the traditional view that the book of Revelation was written by the Apostle John having spoken of the Apostle John as the author of Revelation let's turn to John's location and experience when he wrote the book according to revelation chapter 1 verse 9 John wrote the book of Revelation while he was on Patmos a small island in the Aegean Sea approximately 40 miles southwest of Ephesus Patmos is a rocky and barren place virtually devoid of trees its unpleasantness made it a good location to punish popular people who were perceived as threats to the civil order of the Roman Empire and revelation chapter 1 verse 9 strongly implies that John had been exiled to Patmos while John was enduring these harsh conditions he received several visions from Christ and the book of Revelation is John's record of and commentary on these visions listen to John's account in Revelation chapter 1 verses 10 and 11 on the Lord's Day I was in the spirit and I heard behind me a loud voice like a trumpet which said write on a scroll what you see and send it to the seven churches to Ephesus Smyrna Pergamum Thyatira Sardis Philadelphia and Laodicea here and in other passages like Revelation chapter 21 verse 5 John made it clear that he wrote in obedience to this command from God God was going to show him a vision and John was to record this vision and send it to these seven churches in Asia Minor knowing that the book of Revelation resulted from a supernatural vision given to John has led some interpreters to diminish the importance of John as the author of this book after all if it's just a record of a vision and what difference says its author make what possible input could John have made think that when we think about how the Holy Spirit worked with people and the production of Scripture as God's Word and as a human word we can say both that these are human writers that are thinking things through and they're articulating what they understand and what they want to make known and we can see the police spirit is shaping them and working with them and guiding them in the things that are written there are some cases where the Holy Spirit is just directly telling people what's right so we have some dictation we have clear Oracle's but in other cases you've got the literary artistry of a human author and he's expressing things in cultural forms in the way that he wants to be understood and God is working with those free decisions to make them exactly what he wants it is a compatibility of God's sovereign direction and human responsibility to do things with God's Word to human alert all together the spirit uses the different circumstances the different personalities the different vocabularies the different historical chronology of each person and highlights that in such a way as to bring the optimum amount of clarity to the particular truth that is being demonstrated by the argument of the writer and so throughout scripture what we have is this complete interaction of the of the gifts and the historical background and the knowledge and the experiences of the writers and at the same time the particular activities of the Holy Spirit in guiding them to use all of these personal gifts which God in His Providence has prepared them to health using all these personal gifts in a way to create a book of divine revelation that is precisely as he would have it to be including all the literature types and all the historical narratives and all of the Ochs of the writers all of this is a matter of divine superintendents and divine revelation without in any sense destroying the genuine personality and history of the writers with the possible exception of the letters in chapters 2 & 3 God revealed visions to John not the actual words he was to write generally speaking John wrote about his visions in his own words so in this regard the book of Revelation is a lot like the Gospel of John first John observed the events of Jesus life later he reported those events in his gospel in a way that was designed to meet the particular needs of his audience in much the same way John observed the visions he reported in the book of Revelation then he wrote his book as a true record of his experiences and as we'll see in these lessons John selected and arranged the material in the book of Revelation in ways that address the needs of his original audience like the rest of the Bible the book of Revelation was inspired by God the Holy Spirit super intended John's work so that everything he wrote was true and authoritative but it will see throughout these lessons John was still an active thinking author with a possible exception of the letters in chapters 2 and 3 John didn't receive dictation from Jesus he was responsible for recalling his vision for understanding it and for presenting it in his own words now that we've considered John's location and experience when he wrote the book of Revelation let's look at the date when he composed it ethan Jellicle interpreters generally point to one of two probable dates for the writing of revelation either an early date during the time of the Roman Emperor Nero or a late date and the time of the Roman emperor Domitian will consider both these dates beginning with the time of Nero the Roman Emperor Nero reigned from ad 54 to 68 and historians that argue for a date in Neuros time tends to place the writing of Revelation at the end of his reign in Nero's early years competent advisors had great influence with him but over time his rule did generated dramatically Nero is notorious for having blamed Christians for the fire of Rome in AD 64 and for using this accusation as an excuse to persecute Roman believers in large numbers Emperor Nero undertook his persecution middle of the 1st century mainly to use Christians as scapegoats fire broke out in the city of Rome and Emperor Nero was known for his urban renewal projects so with that fire hitting the landscape very heavily and then other forces coming in and clearing out buildings some felt unnecessarily there were a number who felt that they were really on the receiving end of this urban renewal project and it was the emperor's fault it was it was an uprising threatened he was looking for someone to blame it on and attach that to the Christians and in that various forms of torture or employed to try and extract from the Christians an admission that they were behind this the arguments for dating the book of Revelation during the late years of Nero's reign are based on at least three pieces of information the first main evidence is John's reference to seven kings in Revelation chapter 17 John described a scarlet beast with seven heads and ten horns and in verses nine through eleven he said that the seven heads represented Seven Kings most interpreters agree that these seven kings were Roman emperors Julius Caesar is sometimes counted as the first emperor of Rome he was followed by Augustus Tiberius Caligula Claudius Nero and Galba in fact in Revelation chapter 17 verse 10 we find the detail that the sixth king of Rome was in power when John received his vision and wrote the book of Revelation this reference has led many interpreters to conclude that John's pocalypse was written during the reign of Nero a second major argument that John wrote during Nero's reign comes from John's reference to the Jewish temple in particular John mentioned the temple in Revelation chapter 11 and some scholars interpret this to mean that the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem was still standing when revelation was written but history records that the Temple in Jerusalem was destroyed in AD 70 two years after Nero's reign ended so if the temple was still standing when revelation was written it's likely that the book of Revelation was written during the reign of Nero the third factor that may point to a date in Nero's time is the John wrote during a period of persecution the book of Revelation frequently mentions the fact that John's readers were suffering we can see this in Revelation chapter 1 verse 9 chapter 2 verses 9 10 and 13 chapter 6 verse 9 in chapter 20 verse 4 and as we've already said Nero was well known for promoting the persecution of Christians it wasn't the only Roman Emperor to do this but he was the first to do so in a noteworthy manner even if his persecutions were generally limited to the area around Rome the Roman Emperor Nero who reigned from 54 to 68 was known to be a pretty brutal Emperor he he also was known to persecute many people a number of ways for example he killed members of his own family and he was probably the first Roman Emperor to really persecute Christians now how did he do that well we have an ancient historian Tacitus who tells us that some Christians were covered with pitch and burned actually as a lamps in Rome some were put inside of the skins of wild beasts and fed to the animals and some were also said to to be mailed to crosses although there's no specific historical evidence that the persecution under Nero spread beyond Rome to other parts of the empire this possibility can't be ruled out so this can also be seen as supporting a date during Nero's reign but while the arguments favoring a date in Nero's reign have some merit they aren't entirely convincing in fact a number of objections have been raised against them first Julius Caesar wasn't actually an emperor his successor Augustus was the first to claim that title so Julius Caesar might not be the first of the seven kings mentioned in Revelation chapter 17 verses 9 through 11 second as we've seen Revelation chapter 11 mentions the temple but John was told in Revelation chapter 11 verses 1 and 2 that all but the outer court of this temple would be protected from the Gentiles in contrast to this in Matthew chapter 24 verses 1 & 2 Jesus himself had already predicted that the Temple in Jerusalem would be destroyed by the Gentiles so it's difficult to be sure that Revelation chapter 11 refers to the temple that was destroyed in AD 70 3rd while it's possible that Nero's persecution spread to Asia Minor there's no historical evidence that it actually did so it's difficult to tie John's descriptions of Christian persecution directly to Nero because of problems like these a majority of evangelicals prefer a later date for the book of Revelation now that we've looked at the arguments for a date in the days of Nero let's turn to the evidence suggesting that John wrote the book of Revelation during the reign of Domitian scholars who favored a late date for the writing of Revelation tend to place it during the reign of the Roman emperor Domitian who ruled from 80 81 to 96 at least four factors can be cited in favor of this date for the writing of Revelation first several early church fathers indicated that the book was written at this time for instance in his work against heresies book 5 chapter 30 section 3 the early church father Irenaeus reported that revelation was written toward the end of doe missions rain earlier in this lesson we mentioned that Irenaeus was a disciple of Polycarp who in turn was a disciple of the Apostle John so there's good reason to trust his testimony on this matter this date also concurs with the testimony given by some of the church fathers in the early 2nd century such as clement of alexandria who implied that john was released from exile upon Domitian's death a second factor favoring a date and omissions rain is the same reference to 7 Kings that some interpreters used to support a date in Nero's reign as we've seen in Revelation chapter 17 verses 9 through 11 John explained that the seven heads on the Scarlet Beast or seven kings those who argue for a date in Domitian's ring argue that all seven kings are presented as severe persecutors of the church so rather than counting all the roman emperors they count only those emperors who persecuted the church in significant ways by this reckoning Caligula was the first emperor he reigned from ad 37 to 41 foggiest was the second reigning from eighty 41 to 54 Nero was the third reigning from 80 54 to 68 following Nero three minor emperors are ignored because they didn't significantly contribute to the persecution of the church the fourth Emperor that persecuted the church was Vespasian who reigned from 80 69 to 79 the fifth was Titus who reigned from 80 79 to 81 and the sixth during whose reign revelation would have been written was Domitian who ruled from 80 81 to 96 a third factor that points to a date and omissions rain is the persecution of Christians committee Ana's was the son of best patient and the brother of Titus now what you need to know about that his best patient Titus were responsible personally for the fall of Jerusalem in AD 70 and the rooting out of the leadership of early Judaism and the relentless pursuit of Jews all the way to Masada and and the storming of Masada and the elimination of Jewish zealots on moths in 72 AD so one of the things that you can say about that family is that they were not very Jewish friendly to say the least so it's not a surprise that Dimity Ana's would be an emperor who would persecute a sect that he would see as sort of a split off from Judaism the persecution seems to have been sporadic other than systematic it seems to have been more regional than it was in power wide but it was nonetheless vicious the mission went after everybody and he was so much hated by the people that after after a while they actually scratched his names out of inscriptions that for things like amphitheaters that were dedicated to him and so they actually went through the empire and wiped out his name because he was so widely hated why was he hated well because he crushed any opposition to himself that he saw was out there the persecution of Jews is better known to us really than the persecution of Christians but there's no doubt that it was severe in both cases and as a result of that many who place revelation at the very end of the first century will sense that the Beast or the monster that's being addressed in Revelation is in fact Domitian he was even more than Nero most likely crazy certifiably crazy he is one who in his own habits loved to see women and Dwarfs battle would catch insects and stabbed him repeatedly with needles these are recorded by some of those who watched him and ultimately he was executed murdered by a former slave of his who came back and saw an opening and just couldn't take it anymore so he was the far edge in many ways of Imperial insanity according to many historians Domitian persecuted the church outside Rome more extensively than any prior emperor had for example in 1896 Clement of Rome wrote a letter to the Corinthians that spoke of sudden and repeated calamities and mischances that had befallen them these calamities and mischances suggest a more systematic persecution of Christians during the missions reign he is reported to have feared the coming of Christ and it was even said to have executed his own cousin the Roman consul Flavius Clemens because Flavius was a Christian a fourth reason suggesting a date and omissions time if that de mission required Emperor worship but we also know by the time of Domitian is that you've had the growing progress of the empirical and the Emperor cult goes all the way back to the beginning of the days of the empire with Augustus but by the time you get to demit Theotis he's saying things like you should worship me while I'm alive in the case of Augustus he was worshipped as a deified human being after his death but by the time you get to the end of the 1st century AD they're worshipping or called to worship living Emperor's like Domitian himself he went around saying just worship me as days at dominus noster our Lord in our God which just happens to be the very language that Thomas uses of Jesus my Lord and my God at the end of the Gospel of John and it's very frequent language used of Jesus in the book of Revelation as well so it does seem that the context of the book of Revelation is a time of the rise of Emperor worship and the consequent persecution of Christians in places like Asia Minor which is where those churches were the theme of Emperor worship appears in several portions of the book of Revelation for instance the beast that represents the seven kings in Revelation chapter 17 verses 9 through 11 also requires people to worship Him in Revelation chapters 13 14 and 16 this motif may indicate that Revelation was written during a time when the Roman Emperor required Christians to worship Him there's no evidence that Nero demanded that people worship him but the mission clearly did Christians met his disfavor whenever they refused to acknowledge his claim to be God and Lord Domitian began all of his letters with the phrase our Lord and God commands and he required his subjects to address him in the same way he also had gold and silver statues of himself placed in the temples to the Roman gods but the view that John wrote during the time of Domitian also has its weaknesses for instance John never said that the seven kings in chapter 17 were significant persecutors of the church and he never mentioned the destruction of the physical temple in Jerusalem in AD 70 which would have already taken place by the time of Domitian time John wrote the book of Revelation can't be identified with certainty but there seems to be more support for the view that it was written during the missions reign interpreters who support this view usually suggest a date around AD 95 near the end of the missions life just before John was released from Patmos in these lessons none of our interpretations will hinge on a specific date for the book of Revelation instead we'll focus on the fact that it was written sometime during the latter half of the 1st century at a time when believers were being persecuted for their faith and pressured to worship the Emperor having examined the author and date of Revelation let's discuss its original audience Jean explicitly addressed revelation to seven churches in Asia Minor in an area that's now part of western Turkey the churches were located in the cities of Ephesus Smyrna Pergamum Thyatira Sardis Philadelphia and Laodicea each church received encouragement and when necessary rebukes according to its condition revelation its central purpose that central message is number one to inform the seven churches of their position in Christ just as he suffered and was victorious so too they will suffer and will be victorious it's a theme that permeates the entire book secondly it is they need to put their faith and trust in God's sovereignty Christ some sovereignty in the spirit sovereignty because Christ was put to death and rose again he is now he's now the conquering hero he's the conquering lion he is victorious and he has conquered the evil one so he is sovereign God Christ in the spirit are all sovereign and they can now rest in God's sovereignty in the midst of trials and mists of persecution in the midst of false teaching they need to rely on him because they are undergoing severe persecution severe trials of your testing and it's very easy for them to commit idolatry to become part of the world system but instead they need to rely on God's sovereign hand historians and the book of Revelation itself explained that Christians living in these cities faced all kinds of temptations and pressures to turn from the true Christian faith like many Christians in every age they felt pressured to compromise their faith the New Testament writers give us a lot of practical advice about how to deal with trial and suffering in our lives we see this of course in the book of Revelation and the encouragement to overcome to be faithful in the midst of great pressure to disavow your relationship with Christ or just to compromise your economic life or your sexual life in relation to the lordship of Jesus a couple of things that we see in the book of Revelation and really throughout the New Testament that are practical helps in facing suffering our number one fellowship with other believers the importance of really seeing in the in the fellowship not only of worship but of encouragement of also sharing economically with one another this sense of security and that comes from that being gathered together as God's people in fellowship another thing that we see is a resource in the book of Revelation in particular are these songs of lament where as we see in the Old Testament in the Psalms as we see in the voice of Jesus as he picks up the Psalms like Psalm 22 from the cross but also in the hymns that we see in the book of Revelation is how long how long a lord will the martyrs have to suffer when lord will you come and bring deliverance to your people lament really is about a sense of justice and we know that that sense of justice is rooted in the character of God because the Lord is just we questioned unjust circumstances and we long for his deliverance and for his salvation so I see in the Fellowship of believers and in the language of lament two very very important resources practical resources in facing trial and suffering and even temptation as God's people the churches of Asia Minor faced many sources of pressure to compromise their beliefs and practices but for our purposes in this lesson we'll focus on four problems that characterize to their circumstances first pagan trade guilds pressured Christians to worship false gods in the first century trade guilds existed throughout Asia Minor these were groups of laborers and professionals that organized for economic purposes everyone including Christians needed to join these trade guilds if they hopes to do much business in their communities this social practice presented a serious challenge to followers of Christ because each guild had a patron deity and members of the guild were expected to show their allegiance to that deity Christians who refused to show allegiance to the patron deity of a guild were often excluded from business dealings with its members a second pressure to compromise came from Jewish communities that were spread throughout Asia Minor in the first century for the most part religions in the Roman Empire could only be practiced in the countries of their origin one notable exception to this law was Judaism Jewish synagogues were an operation in most significant cities in Asia Minor early on the Romans viewed Christianity as a sect of Judaism with the result that Christianity could be legally practiced throughout the empire but as the Jews began to disassociate themselves from Christian believers Christianity lost its legal status in most parts of the Empire putting Christians at risk of punishment and persecution from the government as a result Christians felt pressure to conform to Judaism and even to abandon their faith in Christ a third pressure to compromise true Christian faith came from the Roman government which demanded that Christians worship the Emperor and the Roman gods because the Jewish community rejected the Christian Church the government required Christians to participate in public worship of the Roman gods and in Domitian's day this even included an affirmation that the Emperor was a God if Christians refused to join in this idolatry they could be accused of atheism a crime that carried severe consequences and could even result in execution in order to preserve their physical safety many Christians felt pressured to engage in this false worship sadly in addition to precious to conform that came from outside the church a fourth pressure actually came from wayward Christians the Bible doesn't give us many details about the problems in the churches of Asia Minor but the letters to the churches in Revelation chapters 2 and 3 do list several specific troubles caused by people within the Christian community for example the immoral teachings of Balaam are referred to in Revelation chapter 2 verse 14 a group called the Nicolaitans whose condemned in revelation chapter 2 verses 6 and 15 and a false prophetess named Jezebel is mentioned in Revelation chapter 2 verse 20 moreover these wayward Christians appear to have been pressuring other Christians to join in their false practices but not alway word Christians join the Cerreta chol sects some simply gave up their faith and rejoined the pagan religions that surrounded them one interesting record of this comes from Pliny the Younger who was governor of Pontus and Bithynia from ad 111 to 113 listen to what Pliny wrote to the Roman Emperor Trajan others named by the informer declared that they were Christians but then denied it asserting that they had been but had ceased to be some as much as 25 years ago they all worship your image and the statues of the gods and cursed Christ [Music] Christian's in every age face pressures to compromise their loyalty to Christ in thought word and deed in many areas of the world Christianity is still an illegal religion faithful believers have to meet in secret at risk of being arrested and in some cases even killed there's also intellectual pressure secular scholars friends and family often ridicule Christianity as an ignorant religion that's contradicted by science there can also be pressure to compromise our behavior and beliefs for the sake of succeeding in business or to avoid unjust treatment in society and the book of Revelation addresses these kinds of situations it's message is that Jesus is the supreme King and that he will eventually return to make everything right and when he does he'll reward everyone that has remained faithful to him with this understanding of the historical setting of Revelation in mind we're ready to explore its theological background broadly speaking the book of Revelation affirms the theology of every book in the Bible that was written before it John relied extensively on prior biblical writings and he expected his readers to be familiar with them to the theological background of Revelation can be described in many ways but in this lesson we'll focus on three of its most central concepts first the scriptural doctrine of eschatology or the last days second the concept of covenant and third the role of biblical prophets let's look first at the doctrine of eschatology in John's day the early church was experiencing great tension because Jesus haven't returned yet to finish his work during his earthly ministry Jesus had begun to bring salvation to every nation by inaugurating the final stages of God's kingdom on earth but by the time John wrote Jesus had been gone for half a century and some Christians were beginning to wonder if he was coming back at all so one reason that John wrote was to reassure his readers that Jesus was hard at work building his kingdom and that he would certainly return in the future to fulfill every promise the Bible had made about him in other words John wrote to explain the biblical doctrine of eschatology the Bible's teaching about the events of the last days the term eschatology means the study of the end times or the study of last things it derives from the New Testament Greek word eschatos which usually means last traditionally the term eschatology referred primarily to the Bible's teaching about the second coming of Christ but more recent biblical scholars have used the word eschatology to refer to the study of the climactic character of the entire period from Christ's first coming to his return this broader view of eschatology corresponds to the fact that passages like Hebrews chapter 1 verse 2 and first Peter chapter one verse 20 refer to the entire New Testament period as the last days or last times some theologians refer to the time between Christ's first Advent and second Advent as the last days refer to the entirety of that time of the last days because in Christ's first coming what you have is the in breaking of the end times and so theologians sometimes call this inaugurated eschatology or the already not yet in Christ's first coming with his decisive victory on the cross and vindication in his resurrection you have that the down payment or the guarantee or the installation of the outworking of those final promises those final promises are not yet fully part of our experience yet so we're not glorified but but in the moment of Christ's coming and and decisively accomplishing his work of atonement on the cross the outcome is certain the outcome is guaranteed there's no sense in which the final outcome is up for debate or up for grabs or if or that it's unclear in God's mind and so while there are things yet to be experienced by believers in the unfolding of God's plan of redemption the down payment on that final fulfillment is guaranteed from the very moment of Christ's victory on the cross and his victory his vindication I should say in his resurrection and so that's one of the reasons of the primary reasons that theologians can both distinguish aspects of the redemptive economy between Christ's work in his first coming in a second coming and also refer to that cumulatively as the last days we're in the last moments the outworking of Christ ultimate victory as as completed at the cross to understand how New Testament writers understood the last days it helps to begin with the teachings at the Old Testament the Old Testament prophets foretold that the future Messiah or Christ would end the tyranny of foreign rule and usher in God's kingdom on earth as we read in Daniel chapter 2 verse 44 in the time of those kings the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that will never be destroyed nor will it be left to another people it will crush all those kingdoms and bring them to an end but it will itself endure forever in this verse Daniel taught that God's kingdom would crush rival nations and rulers in order to establish God's unending rule over the entire earth and in Daniel chapter 7 verses 13 and 14 the Prophet went on to say that this kingdom would come through the work of the Son of man also known as the Messiah or the Christ prophetic passages like those in Daniel led Jewish theologians in the first century to divide history into two great ages this age of sins suffering and death and the age to come when God would completely destroy his enemies and ultimately bless his people in the centuries after Daniel Israel continued to struggle against pagan empires and foreign rulers and Jewish theologians increasingly longed for the coming of the Messiah into this age and usher in the age to come it's clear that God is presently working with his people in the Old Testament but he always does so in a way that looks forward to the coming of the king the coming of the Messiah the coming of the the final priest the final prophet the final king all the Old Testament is looking forward to that particular person and event when we get to the New Testament we find that the writers of the New Testament are stunned by the reality that what they are facing in their lifetime is actually the very fulfillment that all of the Old Testament had anticipated and it is not only implicit but it is explicit in the New Testament that they have a view of the history of the world really in two parts one of anticipation and the second of fulfillment Jesus himself frequently relied on this basic to age view of history and his preaching for example he spoke of this age and the age to come in places like Matthew chapter 12 verse 32 mark chapter 10 verses 29 and 30 and Luke chapter 20 verses 34 and 35 but jesus also introduced a new perspective on the two ages on the one hand he continued to refer to the age to come as a future age but on the other hand he also spoke of the kingdom of God coming in his own day in other words he taught that in his day the two ages of history had begun to overlap the age to come had begun even though the present age or this age hadn't ended yet according to Jesus believers already live in God's kingdom and already enjoy many of its blessings listen to Jesus words in Matthew chapter 12 verse 28 if I Drive out demons by the Spirit of God then the kingdom of God has come upon you Jesus victory over demonic powers proved that he had begun or inaugurated the final stage of God's kingdom on earth their number of New Testament passages that speak of the last days and virtually all of these passages in context begin the last days already in the first century for example when Peter adapts the wording of Joel in Acts chapter 2 verse 17 says in the last days God will pour out his spirit he's speaking about events that are taking place at that time on the day of Pentecost so the early Christians understood something that sometimes modern Christians have forgotten and that is that the kingdom is not only future but because the King who's yet to come has already come the future has invaded history that's why you have passages in the New Testament for example Galatians 1:4 that he's delivered us from this present evil age or 1st Corinthians 2:9 and 10 where paul says i is not seen ear heard neither is it entered the human heart what God has prepared for those 11 but God has revealed into his place or in second Corinthians and in Ephesians 1 he uses a term that often appears in business documents or downpayments says that we have received the first installment of our future inheritance by receiving the spirit we have received a foretaste of the future world because we're not just expecting the future resurrection and a future Messiah a future king but we're expecting a king who has already come who has already been raised from the dead and therefore for us we have a foretaste and we need to live like the people of the future age we need to live for the future in this present age to let the world have a foretaste of what happens going to be like through the earthly Ministry of Christ God was bringing the final defeat of his enemies and the final blessings for his people his kingdom was breaking into this evil age it was rescuing God's people and ensuring their future blessings and as we just read in Matthew chapter 12 verse 28 this rescue began in the time of Christ we see the same thing in passages like Luke chapter 16 verse 16 and chapter 17 verses 20 and 21 and John chapter 3 verse 3 at the present time the kingdom continues to grow as we see in Matthew chapter 13 verses 24 through 30 and 36 through 43 and Luke chapter 19 verses 11 through 27 and the kingdom will be completed or consummated in the future when Christ returns as Jesus taught in passages like Matthew chapter 16 verses 27 and 28 chapter 24 verses 44 through 51 and chapter 25 verses 31 through 46 this to age view of eschatology is particularly evident in the writings of the Apostle Paul on the one hand he affirmed that this present age of sin and death still exists for example he referred to Satan as the god of this age and 2nd Corinthians chapter 4 verse 4 and he spoke of the pagan philosopher as the philosopher of this age in 1st Corinthians chapter 1 verse 20 moreover Paul used the expression the age to come to refer to the future age when final judgments and blessings will come to the human race we see this in places like Ephesians chapter 2 verse 7 and first Timothy chapter 6 verse 19 and he explicitly contrasted both ages in Ephesians chapter 1 verse 21 on the other hand Paul also taught that the age to come had already arrived in some sense for instance in 1st Corinthians chapter 10 verse 11 he wrote that the fulfillment of the ages had come in Christ and in Colossians chapter 1 verses 13 and 14 he said that believers have already been brought into Christ's Kingdom the view of eschatology taught by Jesus and Paul is sometimes called inaugurated eschatology because it says that the age to come has begun or been inaugurated but that it hasn't yet come in all its fullness Jesus inaugurated God's kingdom during his first coming but he didn't completely do away with this age and since that time dimensions of both ages have existed alongside each other as a result believers already experienced some of the blessings of the age to come but we won't experience all its blessings until the age to come is consummated when Jesus returns according to Jewish eschatology the Messiah was supposed to bring the present age of sin and death to a climactic end as he ushered in the age to come Jesus didn't do that and this left many people wondering if he really was the Messiah this is one reason the writers of the New Testament worked so hard to explain that the kingdom of God comes in stages yes this change was surprising but Jesus powerful miracles and testimony were sufficient to prove that he was telling the truth and that God really did intend to bring the kingdom in an unexpected way when Jesus returns this evil age will end entirely and the age to come will arrive and all its fullness but until then dimensions of both ages will continue to exist alongside each other but how did this view of eschatology impact John as he wrote the book of Revelation and why was this particular point of theology so important to him and to his audience during the time that John was writing the book of Revelation the churches of Asia Minor were struggling with a perceived discrepancy in their beliefs on the one hand they believed that God ruled history and that Christ had been victorious over this present evil age Jesus had fulfilled Old Testament hopes by coming as the deliverer for all who believed in him but on the other hand the churches of Asia Minor had to deal with the reality that evil was still very much at work in their world as a result they faced some very difficult questions like if salvation has come in Christ why does the world still tempt Christians to sin if Christ reigns why doesn't he rescue us from our persecution and of course how and when well all of these trials end in one way or another these questions all relate to eschatology and they are precisely the kind of questions that the book of Revelation answers John was clearly aware of the theological tensions created by the New Testament outlook on the last days and one of his goals for the book of Revelation was to help Christians cope with it throughout his book he encouraged his readers to view this tension in light of two victories first he called their attention to the victory that Jesus had already won over the present age through his death resurrection and ascension Christ had secured every true believers inward spiritual salvation this initial victory is celebrated in places like Revelation chapter 1 verse 18 where Christ proclaimed that it arisen from the dead and would never die again as well as in chapters 5 and 12 which speak repeatedly about the authority and power Christ received through his death and resurrection the second victory John highlighted was the final victory Christ will achieve when he returns a victory that will result in the complete destruction of God's enemies and the renewal of all creation this final victory is in view in places like Revelation chapter 1 verse 7 and throughout chapters 19 and 22 John wanted his original audience to know that Jesus Christ really had defeated the power of sin suffering and death just as the Old Testament at Port old and on this basis John also encouraged his readers to trust that Jesus would return to complete God's judgment and salvation we have to think about how the unexpected delay of God's kingdom how it affected the the outlook of the original audience the original readers of the book of Revelation Christ had ascended that Gospels testified to that the Apostles were testifying to that and and there are things in the Gospels that and even in the Apostle Paul that might be understood as saying that Christ would come again soon and so as those first century Christians were openly professing christ as lord and beginning to experience persecution hardship even just the normal difficulties of regular economic upheaval and displacement they could have wondered had the promise of Jesus to return again had had failed and this is how they were to respond to the situation they were to stand firm in their faith knowing that Christ had overcome that Christ had won the victory and that God was sovereignly ruling the universe from that great throne scene in Revelation chapters 4 and 5 that God was ruling on the throne and there was nothing happening outside not only of his his ability to control but his his his willingness and his permission and his active will to control things because it would be by the suffering of those first century Christians and by their persevering in faith that that people would be drawn to Christ the victor by witnessing that persevering faith with this understanding of eschatology in mind we're ready to turn to a second aspect of the theological background of Revelation the biblical concept of covenant although the word covenant only appears one time in the book of Revelation the Old Testament concept of covenant shape the book in some very important ways it set the basic expectations God's people were to have regarding their lives and God's kingdom it promised their future deliverance and blessing and it motivated them to overcome every adversity they faced to help us recognize the role the concept of covenant plays in the book of Revelation it will be useful to review the way the idea developed throughout Scripture while each of God's covenants had its own unique features a three fold pattern characterized all the vine covenants first each covenant demonstrated God's great benevolence to his people second God expected loyalty from them in grateful response to his benevolence and third God regulated his kingdom by establishing a just system of consequences specifically those who were loyal received blessings those who were disloyal received curses in the covenant with David mentioned in passages like second Samuel chapter 7 verses 1 through 17 Psalm 89 in Psalm 132 God established David's dynasty as the conduit of God's blessings and judgments for his people the sons of David were God's vassal Kings representing the entire kingdom before God as in all other covenants God showed benevolence expected loyalty and reminded the house of David of the consequences of his blessings and curses but later in Israel's history David's descendants failed so badly that the entire nation of Israel was exiled under the curse of God but even in exile the prophets of Israel predicted that in the last days God would renew his covenant through a righteous son of David the Prophet Jeremiah referred to this renewal as a new covenant in Jeremiah chapter 31 verse 31 according to the New Testament Christ is the great son of David who fulfills this new covenant Jesus Christ is king over God's kingdom on earth and God the great king or Emperor has made a covenant with Jesus and His Church in Jesus God's greatest benevolence is displayed Christ himself kept all the requirements of loyalty on our behalf he suffered the eternal curses of the Covenant when he died in our place he rose again on the third day to share the eternal blessings of God's covenant with his people and he is coming again to provide his people with God's ultimate blessings in the renewed creation God's covenant people have always included both faithful people and unfaithful people and this will continue to be the case until Christ returns during the days of Adam and Noah the world's population included believers and unbelievers the same was true of God's special nation during the days of Abraham Moses and David and even the New Testament churches contained a mixture of believers and unbelievers some had true saving faith in Christ but others didn't so when John wrote the book of Revelation for the churches in Asia Minor he knew that only some of his original readers were true believers the believers were anxiously waiting for God to reward their loyalty with blessings but others within the church had begun to waver in their loyalty and were in danger of falling under God's curses in response to this situation John reminded his audiences of the nature of life in covenant god between the first and second comings of Christ we live in a period of testing when the true condition of our hearts is being revealed those who trust fully in Christ will receive his covenant blessings but those who don't will fall under his covenant curses listen to what Jesus said to the church in laodicea in Revelation chapter 3 verse 16 so because you are lukewarm neither hot nor cold I am about to spit you out of my mouth at least some of the people in the Church of Laodicea were in danger of turning from the gospel of Christ so John warns them that if they didn't remain faithful they would suffer God's covenant curses these warnings were actually extensions of God's love for his people because they gave John's readers the opportunity to repent in fact we see God's benevolence throughout the book of Revelation displayed and his love for his people in the sacrifice of Jesus for us in the kingdom of God and in our hope in Christ's return God loved us so much that he sent his son to suffer for us and he rose again from the dead so that we can live in his kingdom forever and his benevolence should encourage us to remain faithful to him even in the midst of great suffering with this understanding of eschatology and divine covenants in mind we're ready to turn to a third aspect of the theological background of the book of Revelation the role of prophets we'll consider the role of prophets first by comparing them to ancient covenant ambassadors second by looking at the potential results of their prophetic work and third by focusing on the way the Apostle John fulfilled the role of prophet in the book of Revelation let's begin by focusing on biblical prophets as covenant ambassadors we've already seen that the Bible describes God's covenant with his people in ways that resemble ancient Imperial treaties so at this point we're ready to look at the related idea that biblical prophets like the Apostle John served as Imperial ambassadors or messengers of God's covenant in the ancient world emperors didn't typically travel around their vast kingdoms personally at least not on a regular basis instead they appointed ambassadors to do this for them it was the job of these ambassadors to encourage the vassals or servants of the Emperor to fulfill the obligations of the treaty the ambassadors did this largely by reminding the vassals of the rewards they would receive if they were loyal to the terms of the Covenant and warning them of the punishments they would receive if they violated these terms in much the same way God commonly sent prophets both in the Old Testament and the New Testament to serve as his covenant ambassadors he charged them to deliver specific messages or prophecies to his people when the people were obedient the prophets tended to encourage them by reminding them of the rewards they would receive if they continued to obey but when the people were disobedient the prophets generally warned them of the judgments God would bring against them if they refused to repent and change their ways these profits are fundamentally covenant lawyers their job is to execute Yahweh's lawsuit against his people his people throughout their history have disobeyed the prophets announced that the people of God have disobeyed and therefore curses are coming but after the curses there's always this notion of hope where the lawsuit is broken and the Lord through his prophet offers the possibility of renewal a new covenant or a new temple or the remnant returning or things like this as we said earlier in this lesson most modern Christians associate the word prophecy with predictions about the future but in the world of the Bible the word prophecy is mainly applied to messages that God sent to his people in order to motivate them to faithfulness prophets were God's covenant ambassadors they reminded these people of their covenant obligations and of the consequences of their behavior many people think that Biblical prophecy is primarily for the prediction of the future but that's not correct prediction of the future is a significant part of it but primarily Biblical prophecy is marked by the concern of the Prophet for the moral nature of the people and it's in that context then that prediction comes if the people will respond to God's directions then the future will be hopeful if they will not respond then the future will not be hopeful so the purpose of Biblical prophecy is to call people back to faithful living for God when a prophecy was intended to motivate God's people to action it shouldn't be seen as an absolute and unchanging prediction of the future instead it should be seen as an offer of blessing or threat of curse if the people responded positively to the prophecy they could expect blessings but if they refused to repent or became complacent in their obedience they could expect to be cursed listen to what God said about the nature and purpose of prophecy in Jeremiah chapter 18 verses 7 through 10 if at any time I announce that a nation or Kingdom is to be uprooted torn down and destroyed and if that nation I warned repents of its evil then I will relent and not inflict on it the disaster I had planned and if at another time I announced that a nation or Kingdom is to be built up and planted and if it does evil in my sight and does not obey me then I will reconsider the good I had intended to do for it here God explicitly stated that prophecies are announcements of coming disaster or good but the recipients of that prophesy can influence the way the prophecy is fulfilled announcements of disaster might be reconsidered if the people repent and announcements of blessing might be reconsidered if the people begin to act sinfully this may sound strange at first but it makes perfect sense once we understand the prophets were covenant ambassadors God's covenant required loyalty from his people and provided consequences both for obedience and for disobedience some people think the main purpose of Biblical prophecy is to predict the future certainly that is an element of Biblical prophecy but traditionally a lot of people have spoken of prophecy as being both forth telling and foretelling the foretelling would be of course the prediction of the future but the fourth telling is very important when you read the prophets because very often much of what they say is not predictive in nature they're confronting the people with their sin they're accusing them of having broken God's law they're calling them back to repentence so we could say it's hortatory and i happen to believe that the predictive element is secondary that what God is really trying to do in classical Biblical prophecy like Amos Isaiah Hosea those kinds of books is he's calling the people back to a proper relationship with himself and very often the predictions are contingent their conditional God is showing them what their future looks like if they don't repent and actually God that's the last thing God wants to do is judge them so he's warning them if you don't repent here's what's going to happen but if they do repent God may very well not bring that judgment upon them or in the case of a prophecy of salvation he's showing them here's what your future will look like if you continue to obey me or if you come back so it can be negative or positive motivation so I think it's very important that we merge the foretelling in the fourth telling and understand that's what Biblical prophecy is really all about now it's important to point out that sometimes God actually did intend prophecies to give his people a glimpse of a certain future at other times he was so intent on bringing a prophecy to pass as stated that he miraculously ensured that his people would act in ways that brought about its unmodified fulfillment at times like these the prophets explicitly indicated God's strong intentions one way that God indicated his strong intention ality was by adding assurances to his prophecies these might be words stating his strong intentions symbolic prophetic actions or even miraculous signs whenever this type of assurance accompanied a prophecy it indicated that it would be harder for human beings to change the prophecies outcome sometimes we see other prophecies confirmed by promises in places like Amos chapter 4 verse 2 where gods swore by his holiness Jeremiah chapter 49 verse 13 where he swore by himself and Ezekiel chapter 5 verse 11 where God said that judgment would come as surely as he lives when God swore by himself he effectively removed the possibility of human responses porting the outcome of the prophecy God's promises raised to the certainty of the predictive outcome to the level of the Covenant itself as surely as God can't lie he won't change what he's sworn by himself the fact that God sometimes reinforced his prophecies by assurances and promises ought to comfort us because our Christian faith is grounded in the eventual fulfillment of Biblical prophecy most importantly we believe there will come a day when Christ will return to earth to judge his enemies and reward his faithful followers we have hope that one day God will restore his creation and wipe every tear from our eyes these prophecies have been reinforced so frequently throughout scripture that we know they can never be revoked or reduced one day all these predictions about Christ's return will come true with this basic understanding of prophets as covenant ambassadors in mind we're ready to look at the potential results of the prophetic work as we've just seen prophecies of blessing don't automatically obligate God to continue to bless his people if at some point they turn away from him one potential result that God may reconsider those blessings in order to address his people's disobedience and in the same way prophecies of judgment should generally be seen as warnings for those who claim to be God's people prophetic warnings explain what God will do if the people continue in their sinful ways and these warnings are given ahead of time because God is merciful he wants to give his people an opportunity to repent and to avoid the consequences of their disobedience in this sense most prophecies of judgments are extensions of God's benevolence to his people they are intended not to give people forewarning of unavoidable doom but to motivate them to change their ways Scripture demonstrates at least five ways that the potential results of the prophecy might be affected by the responses of its recipients first sometimes God revoked a prophetic warning or offer for instance listen to the words of the Prophet Joel in Joel chapter 2 verses 12 through 14 even now declares the Lord returned to me with all your heart with fasting and weeping and mourning rend your heart and not your garments return to the Lord your God for he is gracious and compassionate slow to anger and abounding in love and he relents from sending calamity who knows he may turn and have pity and leave behind a blessing even though Joel had prophesied judgment on God's people he understood that there was still hope heartfelt repentance might change the outcome of the prophecy second the blessing or curse that had been prophesied could also be delayed for example in 2nd Kings chapter 20 verses 1 through 7 Isaiah prophesied that King Hezekiah would die of illness in response to this prophecy Hezekiah wept and prayed and asked God to remember his faithful servus so God delayed his death by 15 years third sometimes God reduced the blessing or judgment he had announced for instance 2nd chronicles chapter 12 verses 5 through 12 tells the story of the Prophet shamaya who announced that God would allow Egypt to destroy Israel when Rehoboam and the leaders of Israel heard this they humbled themselves so God reduced his judgment against them instead of being destroyed by Egypt they would only become Egypt subject fourth sometimes God actually increased the fulfillment of a prophecy one of the most memorable times got increased the fulfillment of a prophecy is found in Daniel chapter 9 verses 1 through 27 in this case God had cursed his people by exiling them from the promised land for 70 years but at the end of those 70 years they still hadn't repented of their sin so God increased their exile by extending it and fifth prophetic predictions can also be fulfilled in an unmodified way for instance Daniel chapter 4 verses 28 and 33 records the fulfillment of a prophetic dream that was interpreted by Daniel the prophet the dream predicted that King Nebuchadnezzar would be driven from his people and eat grass like cattle this dream was reinforced by God's prophetic words in verses 30 and 31 a year after the dream and immediately after God's words the prophecy came about as predicted now that we've compared the role of biblical prophets to ancient covenant ambassadors and looked at the potential results of their work let's turn our attention to how the Apostle John fulfilled the role of a prophet in the book of Revelation it's easy to see that when John wrote the book of Revelation he was acting as God's covenant ambassador and that his goal was to motivate the early church to unfailing faithfulness John constantly reminded the churches of Asia Minor about the principal dynamics that all biblical covenants share he reminded them of God's benevolence he stressed the requirement of loyalty and he emphasized the consequences of blessings for faithfulness and curses for unfaithfulness these features appear in many ways throughout the book but they are most clearly presented in the letters to the seven churches in Revelation chapters two and three each letter begins with an affirmation of the greatness and benevolence of Jesus Christ then it draws attention to the requirement of loyalty and offers blessings or threatens curses as an example consider the letter to the church in Ephesus in Revelation chapter 2 verses 1 through 7 it begins in Revelation chapter 2 verse 1 but the statement of God's benevolence saying these are the words of him who holds the seven stars in his right hand and walks among the seven golden lampstands [Music] God's benevolence is seen in Revelation chapter two verse one the fact that Jesus walked among the lampstands which represent the church is addressed in the letter he hadn't abandoned them but was always with him as the letter to the Church of Ephesus continues who find the requirement of human loyalty for instance in verses 2 through 4 Jesus praised the ephesian church for its hard work and endurance but criticized it for losing its first love he also approved of the Ephesians hatred for the practices of the Nicolaitans after this the letter to the church at Ephesus turns toward the consequences of the Covenant the consequence of curses for disobedience can be seen in verse 5 where Jesus threatened to remove the churches lampstand if its people failed to repent and to regain their first love and the consequence of blessing for obedience can be seen in verse 7 where Jesus offered to bless his obedient followers with access to the Tree of Life the question sometimes comes up if our God's blessing is contingent on us doing something does this sort of imply that our salvation in any way is contingent on our good works do we in fact have some contribution to make to the positive outcome of of salvation it's interesting that those who are on the traditional Armenian and Calvinist sides of what was once a great debate are actually an agreement that God has made us as human beings with volition and that even the damaging effects of the fall on us have not robbed us of our capacity for volition and our responsibility for exercising it according to God's will in ways well that means that God is constantly challenging us through commands and invitations to exercise this god-given ability so yes we must in many cases respond to God in the way that he has promised we'll bring blessing but where we come back then and affirm that it is really ultimately all of grace is that the capacity to respond in the appropriate way ultimately does not derive from our on eight abilities but from God's higher superintending and sovereign grace so that yes we do and must participate in the plan whereby blessing comes to us but we do so in absolute dependence on God's good enabling when the Apostle John wrote the book of Revelation many churches in Asia Minor were wavering in their commitment to God's covenant some people within the church had even begun to doubt that Jesus would return others wondered how Jesus kingdom could possibly be growing when all they personally experienced was suffering and opposition so throughout the book of Revelation the Apostle John served as God's prophet to these churches he reminded them of God's benevolence he warned his readers of the dangers of unfaithfulness and he gave them hope for the future to encourage them to remain faithful until the Lord returned so far in our lesson we've discussed the historical and Theological background of the book of Revelation so at this point we're ready to look at its literary background how did the book of Revelation compared to other writings of the period we'll explore the literary background of Revelation in two steps first we'll compare the book of Revelation to the genre of Old Testament prophecy and second we'll compare it to the specific type of Biblical prophecy known as apocalyptic literature let's begin with Old Testament prophecy the Bible contains many different types or genres of literature historical narrative law poetry wisdom literature epistle prophecy and others each genre has its own literary conventions and ways of communicating historical narrative communicates in a more straightforward fashion than poetry epistles or letters are even more direct and often tell their readers how to apply biblical teachings to specific circumstances differences like these are important to keep in mind as we read the Bible after all it's much easier to understand what a passage teaches if we first understand how it teaches so in order for us to make sense of the book of Revelation one of the important things for us to do is properly identify its genre it's important to identify the genre of biblical books because each literary genre has its own conventions and styles that lay claim to how it communicates its message for instance if I were to read a receipt from my grocer I'd read it very differently with very different expectations that I would say a letter for my daughter likewise when we go to the Bible and we read biblical text we find that biblical texts are written in particular genres so if I read a legal text for instance from the book of Moses I'll read it with certain expectations and giving a mine to the certain conventions and the rules that are placed on that genre these will be very different from reading for instance proverbs which tend to be pithy wisdom sayings drawn from experiences in life or even from God's Word I also read these very differently than I'll read instance a psalm of lament and which God's people lament the suffering that they are undergoing so when we consider a text in the Bible we have to consider its genre so that we can understand what sort of conventions what structures what devices the author had in its toolbox as he was communicating his message to God's people when we rightly understand how the text is put together we can more clearly understand what the text is communicating to us there are different genres or different kinds of writings in scripture so you have you have narratives which normally you should analogize you shouldn't take them as symbols because these are true accounts of events that happened so you can look for the moral of the story but you're not you're not trying to turn it into a series of symbols David's five smooth stones don't represent different things Goliath experienced the first of his smooth stones in a very realistic manner but when you're looking at other kinds of writings in the Bible you have poetry where it takes what we might call poetic license there's a lot of metaphor a lot of imagery most of the prophets before the Exile prophesied in poetry so their their language is rich in imagery and symbolism the book of Revelation carries on that tradition even though it's not primarily in poetry it carries on the prophetic tradition of using a lot of symbolic imagery it's explicit even in telling us that sometimes for example in revelation 120 it explains what some of the symbols mean so revelation is full of symbols and we need to understand it that way because that's the way God inspired it this regard intended for us to understand it the genre of the book of Revelation can be broadly identified as prophecy in fact the Apostle John specifically called it a prophecy in revelation chapter 1 verse 3 as we've seen Biblical prophecy sometimes involves predictions of the future but more than anything else it was a message from God to his people that was intended to motivate them to faithfulness we'll examine the genre of Biblical prophecy in two ways first we'll look at its characteristics and second we'll consider the various types of fulfillment of prophecy found in Scripture let's begin with the characteristics of prophecy Biblical prophecy has many different characteristics and we don't have time to mention them all so we'll focus on just two of its most important features beginning with its typical forms because the book of Revelation fits within the biblical genre of prophecy it will help for us to summarize some of the typical forms prophecy took in the Old Testament in the Old Testament a prophecy could be a message of rebuke to God's people or an Oracle of woe or judgment on his enemies a proclamation of blessing for obedience a promise of vindication for those faithful to the Covenant a declaration of God's plan for redemption a prayer or conversation between a prophet and God and on occasion a prediction of future events one of the most common forms of Old Testament prophecy was a lawsuit in which the vocabulary of the prophecy mirrored the legal language of the courtroom typically God was presented as summoning disobedient Israel into court in order to be judged these lawsuits usually stressed the kindness of God and threatened judgment if Israel continued to disobey sometimes they even offered to reward faithfulness and repentance with blessings frequently predictions of the future were set in the context of these threats of judgments and offers blessing indicating that the predictions were conditioned upon the people's response to the prophecy in many respects John's prophecies in the book of Revelation functioned in the same ways as the prophecies of the Old Testament a second feature of Old Testament prophecy is that it makes frequent use of imagery to convey its meaning the term imagery can have a wide range of meaning but when we use it to describe prophecy we're referring to language that describes things in ways that incite imaginative sensory experiences essentially imagery highlights the ways we can imagine seeing hearing smelling tasting touching something for example in Jeremiah chapter 18 the Prophet Jeremiah used the image of a Potter forming a lump of clay to explain that God has the right to shape Israel in whatever way he wants and in his II kiyul chapter 37 Ezekiel used the image of a valley filled with dry bones to describe the spiritual lifelessness of God's people then he brought them hope by explaining that the bones came together to form living human beings again and the book of Revelation makes frequent use of imagery to listen to how John describes Jesus in Revelation chapter 1 verses 15 and 16 his feet were like bronze glowing in a furnace and his voice was like the sound of rushing waters in his right hand he held seven stars and out of his mouth came a sharp double-edged sword his face was like the sun shining in all its brilliance these beautiful images of Jesus highlight his great power and authority his voice has the power of the sound of a great waterfall he holds in his hand seven stars symbolizing kingly Authority and his face shines brilliantly as he gets light to the world we find similar images throughout the book of Revelation we read of many headed beasts with horns and crowns angels with trumpets and bowls songs and cries for vengeance the eating and tasting of scrolls horses and writers mountains and even a city descending from heaven in fact it would be hard to find a paragraph anywhere in the book of Revelation that didn't contain some type of imagery one of the complex things in the book of Revelation is that there is indeed a mixture of symbolic terms along with more literal terms and when you see the symbolic terms very often they are actually interpreted for us so for instance in Chapter 1 when Jesus refers to in the description refers to seven lampstands and seven stars later they actually say with the seven lampstands in the seven stars or so then you know you're definitely dealing with symbols which is very helpful there's other times when things are described and in ways that are surprising and are hard to conjure up in some sort of literal image so you'll have a beast with seven heads and and and then you see that later on they'll talk about the seven heads or the Seven Hills and that's when you can see that as you're moving away from something that looks visually much like you would anticipate in the real world that you're moving into something much more symbolic the book of Revelation draws a lot of its imagery from the Old Testament and this means that our familiarity with Old Testament prophecy can help us recognize imagery in Revelation and more than this it can even help us interpret revelations imagery since revelation in the Old Testament often use the same images in the same ways recognizing imagery throughout the book of Revelation doesn't mean that we have to interpret revelation allegorically or that we're spiritualizing its meaning on the contrary recognizing literary features like imagery is a part of our normal strategy of grammatical historical interpretation after all it John intended this big metaphorically then it would be a huge mistake to interpret his words in woodenly literal ways responsible readings of the book of Revelation acknowledge its images and interpret them according to normal literary conventions now that we've introduced some of the important characteristics of prophecy let's focus on the types of prophetic fulfillments we see in Scripture prophetic fulfillment is a very complicated subject but for the purposes of this lesson we can speak of three types of prophetic fulfillment first prophecies may be fulfilled in a direct manner when most people think about prophecy being fulfilled the first thing that comes to mind is direct fulfillment prophecies can be directly fulfilled when the events they predict come to pass as stated for instance in Jeremiah chapter 25 verses 8 through 11 Jeremiah amounts that Judah would fall to the Babylonians and become a desolate wasteland for 70 years and according to 2nd chronicles chapter 36 verses 15 through 21 this is precisely what happened second there can also be contingent fulfillment of prophecy a contingent fulfillment occurs when the outcome of a prophecy is somehow modified in light of the way human beings responds to the prophecy we've already seen that the outcomes of prophecies may be modified by the responses of their recipients when this happens we can say that the results were contingent on the responses of the people this is what we have in mind when we speak of contingent fulfillment of prophecy for instance in 2nd Samuel chapter 12 verses 1 through 15 the Prophet Nathan warned David that God was going to kill David because he had committed adultery with Bathsheba and murdered her husband Uriah in response to this prophecy David repented because he repented God reduced the judgment on him by sparing his life but God still took the life of David's son and brought calamity on David's family second Samuel chapters 13 through 19 described in great detail the fulfillment of Nathan's prophecy on David's family third prophecies can have tip illogical fulfillment for the purposes of this lesson will define typology as the treatment of past persons institutions or events in Scripture as for shadows that prefigure later persons institutions or events for instance Paul called Adam a type of Christ in Romans chapter 5 verse 14 because Adams life foreshadowed Jesus life but where Adam sinned in the garden bringing sin and death on humanity Jesus obeyed bringing life and justification for believers in him so a tip illogical fulfillment of prophecy is one in which the things that the prophecy States directly are for shadows of future events for instance in Matthew chapter 2 verse 15 Matthew said that when Jesus family left Egypt it fulfilled Hosea chapter 11 verse 1 which says out of Egypt I called my son this verse in Hosea wasn't predicting the coming of the Messiah in fact the prophecy was looking back in history to say that God had redeemed Israel from Egypt during the exodus but tip illogically speaking this passage was fulfilled again in Jesus day because the Exodus was a pattern that prefigured the life of Israel's great Messiah New Testament writers understood that some Old Testament prophecies had already been fulfilled even before they wrote their New Testament books but they still felt free to point to greater tip illogical fulfillment in their own day having compared revelation to the genre of prophecy we're ready to address the subcategory of prophecy known as apocalyptic literature we'll explore the nature of apocalyptic literature first by looking at its characteristics and second by summarizing its historical development let's begin with the characteristics of biblical apocalyptic literature apocalyptic literature is complex and may be summarized in various ways in these lessons will define biblical apocalyptic literature as highly symbolic literature that reports divine revelations usually received through private disclosures about the interactions among natural preternatural and supernatural realities and their impact on the past present and future this definition is rather detailed so we should take the time to explain it first let's consider the fact that biblical apocalyptic literature is highly symbolic broadly speaking a symbol is a sign or other representation that points to something beyond itself for example words are symbols that represent things like ideas objects actions attributes and so on national flags are symbols of countries and the cross is a highly recognizable symbol for the Christian religion as just one example listen to how Jesus explained two symbols in Revelation chapter 1 verse 20 the mystery of the seven stars that you saw in my right hand and of the seven golden lampstands is this the seven stars are the angels of the seven churches and the seven lampstands are the seven churches in the context of this verse john had received the vision of christ in which the lord was holding stars in his right hand and walking among lampstands but the stars and lamps were symbolic they represented angels and churches the key to discerning legitimate symbols and interpreting them in the book of Revelation without falling into an allegorical approach that really doesn't do justice to the meaning as God intended in the word really is threefold first we need to recognize that so much of the symbolism in Revelation is already given in the Old Testament Scriptures especially in the visions of Daniel and Ezekiel and Zechariah so God was preparing a kind of symbolic vocabulary for his people already and John is drawing heavily on that we also need to pay attention to the other parts of scripture that speak in a more we might say straightforward way we interpret the visions and the symbols in the book of Revelation in the light of the historical narratives that are given to us for example in the Gospels or the doctrinal sections that we find in the epistles and so we compare what are sometimes more difficult texts of Scripture the visions of Revelation with the clearer text the more straightforward text and then thirdly we need to take account of the promise given in the very first of the seven blessings in the book of Revelation that the one who reads it aloud and those who hear it can receive take to heart and keep the words they can understand it these are not clues and codes that would have been closed to them in their first century context we want to take the take seriously the fact that this was actually given to our first century brothers and sisters and not just to us at the now in the 21st century and they could understand it they could grasp it even just by hearing it read aloud and and get the message and receive the blessing biblical apocalyptic literature makes frequent use of symbols some symbols are largely descriptive like when an author chooses symbols that are very similar to what he's observed for instance in Daniel chapter 7 verse 4 Daniel recorded a vision of a beast that looked like a lion with the wings of an eagle the lion and the wings were descriptive because they communicated the creatures actual appearance and they were symbolic because they also communicated its nature the symbol of the lion implied that the creature was powerful and fearsome and the wings on the lion probably associated it with Babylon which often portrayed winged lions in its art in other cases a symbol may be devised in order to illustrate a point for instance in Joel chapter 2 verse 25 God described invading armies as locusts the armies didn't look like locusts but they behaved like locusts they were an unstoppable mass that devoured everything they desired still other symbols are used because they are traditional representations of things or ideas similar to a country's flag for instance in Revelation chapter 1 verses 10 through 20 John received a vision of Jesus that was highly symbolic Jesus appeared as a human being dressed in a long robe with a golden sash around his chest his face shone like the Sun his hair was white his eyes blazed like fire his feet were like bronze glowing in a furnace his voice was like rushing water and he had a double-edged sword coming out of his mouth he held seven stars in his hand and he stood among seven lampstands these details were called symbols and imagery from the Old Testament and therefore implied something about Jesus for instance his white clothes and hair and his blazing face recall the description of God in Daniel chapter 7 verse 9 the lampstands were called the tabernacle and temple furnishings indicating that Jesus was still present with his people just as God had been present with them it is special houses of worship in the Old Testament and the Stars recalled Old Testament descriptions of Kings and other human leaders as in numbers chapter 24 verse 17 Isaiah chapter 14 verse 12 and many other places so when revelation speaks of stars as angels that represent churches it's because Jesus was revealing his present spiritual reign as king over all creation from a human perspective Rome threatened to control the fate of the church but the symbol revealed that Jesus held complete power and authority over the church in his hand apocalyptic writings often contain images and symbols that modern readers find difficult to understand but most of the symbols in the book of Revelation weren't confusing to John's original audience because they were drawn from the Old Testament and from the world around them their purpose wasn't to confuse John's readers but to communicate truth to them in a compelling memorable way a second characteristic of biblical apocalyptic literature is that it reports divine revelations biblical apocalyptic literature is inspired by the Holy Spirit just like the rest of Scripture it's part of God's infallible fully reliable and authoritative Word to his people it reports true revelations that were given the human authors either by God Himself or through his perfectly trustworthy angelic messengers biblical apocalyptic literature isn't speculative it's not a human authors best guess on the contrary it's God's true communication to his people that reveals his intentions toward creation third the divine revelations reported in biblical apocalyptic literature tends to have been received through private disclosures the word apocalypse itself means uncovering or disclosure so at its heart biblical apocalyptic literature is a work that reveals God's plan to his people so that they'll be able to make sense of the world and not lose hope but unlike some other miraculous revelations as when God appeared to the entire nation of Israel as a pillar of cloud in Exodus chapter 13 biblical apocalyptic disclosures tended to be received by solitary individuals prophets received dreams they heard voices or sounds they saw visions they were visited by angelic messengers they had experiences that seemed to take them out of their bodies sometimes they even met God himself but this happened in a private setting it was then up to the Prophet as God's messenger and ambassador to deliver the message to God's people the fourth characteristic of biblical apocalyptic literature will mention is that it deals with interactions among natural preternatural and supernatural realities the word natural refers to the universe where we live including the physical world and all its creatures the word preternatural refers to the world beyond nature this is the world inhabited by spirits such as angels and demons finally the word supernatural means above nature and refers specifically to God and his actions God is the only sovereign being was fully above and in control of the natural realm so he is the only being that is truly supernatural all these realms are constantly interacting God exerts control over the natural and preternatural realms the angels and demons in the preternatural realm influence things that happen in the natural realm demons tempt us to sin angels guard us and according to Scripture angels and demons even impact international politics throughout the old and new testaments we find glimpses into the spiritual forces that influenced the history of the world for example in 2nd Kings chapter 6 Elisha was being pursued by the king of Aaron eventually the king of Aaron caught up to Elisha and surrounded him and Elisha's servant became terrified but listen to what happened next in 2nd Kings chapter 6 verses 15 through 17 oh my lord what shall we do the servant asked don't be afraid the Prophet answered those who are with us are more than those who are with them and Elisha prayed Oh Lord opened his eyes so he may see then the Lord opened the servants eyes and he looked and saw the hills full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha although such insights into the preternatural and supernatural realms appear here and there in various parts of the old and new testaments biblical apocalyptic literature heavily concentrates on these matters for example portions of Joel Ezekiel Daniel and Zechariah concentrate attention on the interactions between the natural and supernatural realms and in much the same way the book of Revelation draws attention again and again to the invisible realms of God and of the spiritual powers and authorities that God employees for his purposes angels and demons have a great deal of effect on the things that happen around us because the world in which we live is a world that is controlled by God and it's going somewhere according to the plan of God and if we're going to be involved in that if we're going to push forward in that then we have to believe that these kinds of creatures actually exist one of the most fascinating aspects of this is that often when we think about the activities of angels and demons we think in terms of our personal lies are individualized and that certainly is true is there in the Bible no doubt about it but one of the big things we have to remember is that in the Bible demonic powers especially and at times angelic powers as well we learned that they have been assigned Dominion or rule over the nations and so they represent these nations in the court of God like Psalm 82 where it says that Yahweh presides over his great assembly and the gods little gods though the gods are there with him and these are the demons and angels and preternatural creatures who are in control of the various nations and so in many respects we don't realize this but the political arena of the world it's controlled not by how many people vote for this person or vote for that person or how one monarch receives the right to the throne from his ancestors and those kinds of things is not that way in reality behind the scenes invisible scene there are these demonic and angelic creatures who are actually in control of the great movements of political entities in the world finally a fifth characteristic of biblical apocalyptic literature is that it describes the impact of the natural preternatural and supernatural realms on the past present and future apocalyptic literature focuses on all aspects of history it explains the ways that natural preternatural and supernatural realms have impacted our world in the past how they continue to affect us in the present and how they'll influence our future and more than this like the rest of the Bible biblical apocalyptic literature views all of history as one grand story the story of creation the fall into sin and subsequent redemption through Christ apocalyptic literature tends to describe the present in terms of its suffering and difficulties and to focus on the future at the time when all our hopes will be fulfilled sometimes modern Christians have a difficult time with the book of Revelation because we don't normally think of the spiritual influences that lie behind our experiences in life as people who are influenced by modern science we tend to look for naturalistic explanations for the things that happen in our lives we focus on things we can see hear smell taste and touch but the Scriptures make it clear that our senses can perceive only part of what happens around and in us to grasp what the book of Revelation offers us today we have to set aside these naturalistic prejudices and follow the teaching of Scripture what happens within us and around us is deeply influenced by spiritual powers and by God Himself what may appear to us as very natural occurrences personal crises troubles in the church and even political struggles are not simply natural occurrences they are the result of complex involvements that include God and spiritual realities when we accept the Bible's outlook on these matters revelation can speak to us powerfully just as it did to John's first century audience none of us can see the full spiritual realities that lie behind our experiences but the book of Revelation lifts the veil on these spiritual realities to allow us to see God's cosmic plan to bring salvation into history through Jesus Christ is present now with his church by his Spirit and he'll return to claim final victory over all his enemies the theme of the book of Revelation is Jesus wins now that means ultimately we must be encouraged doesn't mean they're we're not going to face trials and the book of Revelation is a powerful reminder of how God allows judgments and trials and chaos and the great prostitute Babylon and so forth all of these things come into our lives but ultimately the New Jerusalem will descend from heaven and Jesus will establish his reign God will be our God we shall be his people for ever and ever so it couldn't be more encouraging than that the book of Revelation does assure us that in the end God will triumph over all his enemies a complete triumph we should respond with joy and anticipation first of all expecting this and with determination and commitment in the face of opposition in the face of temptations right in this life knowing that the end will will overcome all the opposition that we now face and the sufferings we now face the great lesson of the book of Revelation is that God will conquer all his and our enemies that is a very encouraging message for the church that is something that's extremely important for the church certainly in the suffering that it goes through in this age here's so it's a message of great encouragement that that God will bring everything to a satisfactory conclusion from his perspective and the church will concur at the end of time now that we've examined the characteristics of biblical apocalyptic literature let's turn our attention to its historical development many critical scholars have thought that apocalyptic literature in the Bible came from Babylonian and Persian influences late in Israel's history after Israel's 6th century BC exile in Babylon but newer research has shown that the main features of the apocalyptic genre began to develop early in biblical revelation as Israel interacted with the surrounding cultures of the Canaanites and other West Semitic peoples many elements that became prominent in biblical apocalyptic literature also appear in the earliest books of the Old Testament for instance in Exodus chapter 15 there is a highly symbolic song celebrating the fact that God drowned the Egyptian army in the Red Sea it speaks of God's shattering the Egyptians with his right hand burning them like stubble piling up waters with a blast of his nostrils and causing them to be swallowed by the earth it goes on to say that the nations will cower in fear of God so that Israel will be established in the promised land and so that God will dwell with them bare as their everlasting king another example from the books of Moses is Balaam's prophecy in numbers chapter 24 verse 17 or the rise of kingship in Israel is described with the imagery of a star this style of literature became progressively more developed throughout Israel's history job chapter 26 verse 12 in Psalm 89 verse 10 speak of God slaying the serpent Rahab in a cosmic battle and in job chapter 41 God proclaimed his power over Leviathan the sea monster and the prophets continued to develop apocalyptic imagery to even greater levels in books like Joel Daniel Ezekiel and Zechariah for instance Daniel chapter 7 records Daniel's dream in which a series of monstrous beasts rises out of the sea ending when God judges and destroys the last and most terrible of them the period immediately following the close of the Old Testament is often called the intertestamental period because it was written after the Old Testament and before the New Testament during this time apocalyptic literature fully developed into a distinctive genre and many uninspired extra biblical apocalyptic writings were produced these include the assumption of Moses Enoch parts of second estrus the apocalypse of baruch and the war scroll found in Qumran even though these writings aren't part of the Bible we mention them because they help us trace the development of the apocalyptic genre these writings were heavily oriented toward the cosmic struggles behind the earthly experiences of their audiences they drew heavily from imagery in Old Testament prophets and developed much more elaborate uses of these images by mixing them together these particular aspects of intertestamental apocalyptic literature are also found in New Testament apocalyptic writings even though intertestamental apocalyptic writings have certain similarities to biblical apocalyptic writings they also possess characteristics that distinguish them from Scripture in some important ways for instance many are pseudonymous meaning that they were written under a false name to encourage people to read and accept the writing as an authentic product of a falsely named author but this practice was dishonest and Paul condemned it in 2nd Thessalonians chapter 2 verse 2 some extra biblical apocalyptic writings also talked about past events as if they hadn't happened yet in order to give the appearance that the writer accurately foretold the entire history of Israel this of course is another form of dishonesty and biblical apocalyptic literature never employs this tactic in the New Testament the genre of apocalyptic literature continued to develop now we have to remember that the New Testament apocalyptic material is very different from intertestamental literature the New Testament is entirely honest and trustworthy the same time New Testament apocalyptic literature uses a style that is very similar to intertestamental apocalyptic writings outside the book of Revelation we find apocalyptic forms in places like Matthew chapter 24 in that chapter Jesus grew from apocalyptic visions in Daniel and Isaiah in order to explain future events like the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem and even the end of the world for instance in Matthew chapter 24 verse 29 Jesus talked about the Sun and Moon ceasing to give light and the stars falling from the sky there may even be hints of apocalyptic style in Paul's letters Paul often gave hope to his readers by demonstrating that Christ's death and resurrection defeated demonic powers as in Colossians chapter 1 verses 15 through 20 and chapter 2 verses 13 through 15 he frequently talked about spiritual warfare and ways that resembled apocalyptic writings and in 2nd Thessalonians chapter 2 he spoke of the cosmic forces of evil that will be defeated at Christ's return but of course the New Testament writing that best exemplifies the final development of biblical apocalyptic literature is the book of Revelation revelation is complex because it contains a concentration of apocalyptic features but it's also deeply rooted in the rest of Scripture and this should comfort us as we read it the book may seem foreign to us but the rest of Scripture can help us understand its message as well as its application to our own lives in the modern world understanding the literary background of Revelation is a huge help to us the fact that revelation consists primarily of apocalyptic prophecy assures us that the book of Revelation is intended to motivate us to obey God from our hearts it's words and images aren't intended to confuse us or to present us with puzzles about an immutable future on the contrary revelation is intended as an understandable encouraging guide to a life of service to God as we investigate the book of Revelation more deeply in other lessons understanding its function as apocalyptic prophecy will help us grasp its message and live according to its teachings in this lesson we've surveyed three important aspects of the background of Revelation we've explored its historical setting focusing on its author date of composition and original audience we've considered its theological context in terms of the eschatology of the New Testament the concept of covenant and the role of prophets and we've described the literary background of Revelation particularly its relationship to the genres of prophecy and apocalyptic the book of Revelation may seem strange to our ears today but in its original setting it would have been much easier to understand the forms John used and the things he said would have been familiar to his first audience and the better we understand their context and perspectives the better we'll be able to understand John's message and to apply to our own lives whether we're suffering for the sake of Christ and the gospel or enjoying relative peace the book of Revelation teaches us to remain faithful to Jesus and to hope and the wonderful future God planned for those who trust him [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] you [Music] you [Music]

Channel: Thirdmill

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Keywords: Study, Bible Study, God, Scripture, Ministry, Truth, Education, Bible, Free, Seminary, Theology, Reformed, Jesus, Revelation, Richard Pratt, For the World, Third Mill, Biblical Education, Mission, Theology Matters, Third Millennium Ministries, Book Of Revelation (Religious Text), end times, last days

Id: w57YVRrdPas

Length: 125min 11sec (7511 seconds)

Published: Mon Jun 26 2017