Revelation: The Introductory Issue

This is hands down my least favorite book in the New Testament. But it isn’t Revelation’s fault. I don’t really dislike the book, as much as I tire of the faulty reading and interpretation of it. Revelation is an apocalypse, which is a precise genre of writing with a specific purpose. And that purpose, contrary to conventional wisdom, is NOT to illuminate the way civilization is going to end.

Oh, to be sure, that is a small part of what Apocalypses are about. But consider this: if the sole or even just primary purpose of Revelation was to be a “spoiler alert” on history, it would be the most irrelevant piece of literature to all but one generation of readers. And, reading it that way for the past nearly two millennia has been unhelpful at best. In many cases it has led to the creation of new cults and heretical teaching.

So, as I read my way through Revelation over the next several weeks, don’t expect to see a lot of speculation of how it’s message might be a code for current events; because it most likely isn’t. Instead, I will be looking for it’s timeless meaning, which, being timeless, will apply to things in our day without having to be specifically about our day. That is how it should be done.