I’ve been thinking a lot about Revleation lately. Not least because we’re going through Revelation at our church. Over the years I’ve seen two extremes in the study of Revelation. On the one hand we have those who try to find the meaning of Revelation in every news cycle and on the other we have those who are so confused by the book they refuse to read it at all. I don’t think either one was what John, or God for that matter, had in mind when he wanted us to read the book.
Several years ago I had the idea of reading the entire book of Revelation in the a church service, coupled with brief commentary and worship.
Here’s what Richard Baukham says
This is not to be explained simply by supposing that John had a remarkably powerful visual imagination. The power, the profusion and the consistency of the symbols have a literay-theological purpose. They create a symbolic world which readers can enter so fully that it affects them and changes their perception of the world. Most ‘readers’ were originally, of course, hearers. Revelation was designed for oral enactment in Christian worship services (cf. 1:3). Its effect would therefore be somewhat comparable to a dramatic performance, in which the audience enter the world of the drama for its duration and can have their perception of the world outside the drama powerfully shifted by their experience of the world of the drama. Many of the apocalypses could have something of this effect. but Revelation perculiarly visual charachter and perculiar symbolic unity give it a particular potiential for communicating in this way. It is an aspect of the book to which we shall return. (Page 10 Theology of Revleation
I’ve been thinking a lot about Revleation lately. Not least because we’re going through Revelation at our church on Wednesday nights. Over the years I’ve seen two extremes in the study of revelation. On the one hand we have those who try to find the meaning of revelation in every news cycyle or event and on the other we have those who are so confused by the book they don’t want to read it at all. I don’t think either one was what John or God for that matter had in mind when he wanted us to read the book.
Several years ago I had the idea of reading the entire book of Revelation in the a church service, coupled with brief commentary and worship.
In Revelation 1:3, John says, “Blessed is the one who reads aloud the words of this prophecy, and blessed are those who hear it and take to heart what is written in it, because the time is near.” There’s a blessing placed upon those who reads aloud and those who hear revelation. I’ve thought about that alot. I think the way we study Revelation takes away some of the impact of the book. Revelation appears to have been intended for reading during a worship gathering of the church.
Revleation works around a cycles.
Christ and the Church (Revelation 1-3)
The Scroll Unsealed (Revelation 4-7)
Trumpets of Terror and Hope (Revelation 8-11)
The Beast and the Lamb (Revelation 12-15)
The Harlot and the Bride (Revleation 15-19)
The End (Revelation 20-22)
Each of these cycles begins and ends in worship. The very context of the book is something that took place while John was in the Spirit on the Lord’s day. It had to have been a church service.
