Revelation

Do you know what this is?

For those, like me, with a background in the Church of England it has meaning and symbolism, and it evokes memories and understanding. But for anyone else, it looks like an orange with things stuck into it. (It's a Christingle.)

Revelation is a bit like the Christingle. To those it was addressed to it may well have meant something very significant and important, but to us, now, it's confusing and we don't understand the allegories. Why is it so symbolic? When I became a Christina at the age of 14 in 1982 my first Bible study class was on Revelation, and they said the symbolism was because Christians were persecuted so the author had to write in a way no one intercepting the letters would understand – that the lurid imagery would be understood by those the message was intended for, but not by anyone else. Apparently this is no longer believed to be the case because theologians and historians have established that there is little evidence that Christians were particularly persecuted at that time.

So why is it so incomprehensible, confusing, mysterious and esoteric? Ummm…

Who wrote it, when and where?

1 Nephi 14:20-22 reads, “And the angel said unto me: Behold one of the twelve apostles of the Lamb. Behold, he shall see and write the remainder of these things; yea, and also many things which have been. And he shall also write concerning the end of the world.” Doctrine and Covenants 20:35 also identifies the writer of Revelation as John the apostle. Because of this, the official view of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is that John the beloved apostle is the John of Patmos, or John the Revelator, who received the vision and wrote the letter/book of Revelation.

Among non-LDS scholars there is disagreement. Some say it couldn't have been John the apostle because it was written late, in 95AD, as evidenced by passages which seem to reference the Roman Emperor Domitian. As one of Jesus' disciples in 30-33AD, could John the apostle still have been alive in 95AD? John 21:22 may hint at an answer.

What most Christians agree on is that John was a prophet. Remember those BIG DEAL scriptures from the last lesson? This fact is another of those. Many Christians argue that there could be no more prophets after Jesus because everything had been said and fulfilled in the Saviour, but we can remind them that John was undoubtedly a prophet. (Having said that, so were Agabus (Acts 21:10) and Silas (Acts 15:32) among others.) Revelation is evidence that God has not finished speaking to us.

Fun fact: No original manuscript of Revelation exists, and some (particularly Greek Orthodox) believe it was originally written on the walls of a cave on Patmos which is now a UNESCO World Heritage site called the Cave of the Apocalypse. It’s a graffiti book! (No, the writing is not still on the walls.)

What is it?

Like much of the New Testament, Revelation is a letter written to early Christians. In this case it was addressed to seven churches.

By genre it is an “apocalypse”. This is a Greek word meaning “revelation” or “unveiling”, i.e. a vision, and so it didn’t originally mean “end of the world” as it does now, and in fact Revelation does not claim anywhere to be an accurate description of the end of the world despite the fact that the word "apocalypse" has now come to mean that.

There are other “apocalypses” in the Bible (including in Daniel, Isaiah and Ezekiel) and in the Book of Mormon (Nephi’s vision). It’s in the nature of apocalypses to be heavily symbolic, dramatic, surreal, exaggerated, and show the world torn between the conflict between good and evil, resulting in much terror and the eventual triumph of God. They are meant to be dramatic and memorable.

As you read it, did you see parallels in modern day? This is why personal revelation is so important. We need to understand scriptures, including prophecy, as they relate to us.

Most Christian interpretations of Revelation fall into one or more of the following categories: 

• Historicism: The idea that Revelation is a broad view of the whole of history
• Preterism: The idea that Revelation refers to the events of the first century or, at the latest, the fall of the Roman Empire 
• Futurism: The idea that Revelation describes future events. This is the doctrine of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and most Evangelical churches. 
• Idealism: The idea that Revelation does not refer to actual people or events, but is an allegory of the spiritual path and the ongoing struggle between good and evil. Everything in it is symbolic 
• The Liturgical Interpretation: The belief that the important part of the book is the temple and sacramental imagery and that it’s a symbolic description of creation, fall, and redemption.

The Text

Chapters 2 and 3

Jesus tells John to send seven messages to seven churches. In class we split into seven groups and looked at what message is given to each church. We felt that it showed just how well the Lord knows these wards/branches/groups and how similar they are to our own wards/branches/groups today in the issues and difficulties they face.

Chapter 5
Revelation may be incomprehensible, but it still contains some wonderfully powerful imagery. Consider verses 5-6:

And one of the elders saith unto me, Weep not: behold, the Lion of the tribe of Juda, the Root of David, hath prevailed to open the book, and to loose the seven seals thereof.

And I beheld, and, lo, in the midst of the throne and of the four beasts, and in the midst of the elders, stood a Lamb as it had been slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven Spirits of God sent forth into all the earth.

The lamb’s horns and eyes signify power and wisdom, but the significance here is that John is told to behold the lion and sees instead a glorious lamb.

It was pointed out to me that the JST slightly changes this passage to twelve of everything, and references the twelve apostles. As we look at the meaning of numbers in revelation (see below) think about how that changes the meaning.

Chapter 7

I absolutely love verses 11-17, and there is so much in them which resonates with Latter-day Saints:

And all the angels stood round about the throne, and about the elders and the four beasts, and fell before the throne on their faces, and worshipped God, saying, Amen: Blessing, and glory, and wisdom, and thanksgiving, and honour, and power, and might, be unto our God for ever and ever. Amen.

And one of the elders answered, saying unto me, What are these which are arrayed in white robes? and whence came they?

And I said unto him, Sir, thou knowest. And he said to me, These are they which came out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.

Therefore are they before the throne of God, and serve him day and night in his temple: and he that sitteth on the throne shall dwell among them.

They shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more; neither shall the sun light on them, nor any heat.

For the Lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall feed them, and shall lead them unto living fountains of waters: and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes.

The Numbers

Numbers play a major part in Revelation, and naturally they have meaning too, including in multiples. 4, 7 and 12 are particularly significant.

The number 4 signifies the whole world (think of the four cocktail sticks on the Christingle). They could be the four corners of the earth (Ezekiel 7:2), the four points of the compass, and the four seasons. The Bible also mentions the four winds (Matthew 24:31).

The number 7 is used 735 times in the Bible and 54 times in the book of Revelation alone. If we include 'sevenfold' and 'seventh' the total jumps to 860 references.

Seven is the number which represents completeness and perfection, partly due to the creation which took seven days. There are 7 days in a week and the Sabbath is on the 7th day. We might also remember Jesus speaking of forgiving seventy times seven times, of the Seventy sent out in Acts, or of the walls of Jericho (Joshua 6:4).

Interestingly, when the canon of the Bible was established in the Council of Laodicea in 363AD it was divided into 7 major divisions. They are 1) the Law; 2) the Prophets; 3) the Writings, or Psalms; 4) the Gospels and Acts; 5) the General Epistles; 6) the Epistles of Paul; and 7) the book of Revelation. The total number books was forty-nine, or 7 x 7.

12 is used frequently to signify the fullness, sufficiency, enough - not to be confused with perfection. There were 12 tribes, and 12 apostles, the Holy City is spoken of as 12,000 furlongs by 12,000 furlongs (Revelation 21:16), etc. Note also that 144,000 (see chapter 7) is 12x12x10.

In class, the number of the beast, 666, was also mentioned. 6 is one short of 7, the number of perfection, so perhaps 6 can be seen as falling short of perfection. After class Roderic also pointed out that 666 utilises each of the Roman numerals once in order - DCLXVI. Could it therefore refer to Rome? A little more research later showed that some scholars believe it to specifically indicate the Roman emperor Nero.

There are some really good resources on Revelation in this month's Ensign. Thanks Sheila Wheeler for pointing them out to us.

So sorry I couldn't explain to you all what Revelation actually means, but as you continue in your Come, Follow Me study, look for personal revelation on what it can mean to you and how you are to respond to it.