Studies in Revelation -- Introduction

Studies in Revelation
by Dr. John H. Roller

Introduction


The Book of Revelation, in the New Testament, can only be understood once one has understood the Book of Daniel, in the Old Testament. For that reason, intending to produce this series of “Studies in Revelation,” I first prepared a chapter-by-chapter and verse-by-verse series of “Studies in Daniel,” which, if you haven’t already read, you should first read before you begin to read these “Studies in Revelation.” If you don’t already have a copy of the “Studies in Daniel,” just send an email to johnroller@faithbiblechristian.com and request them, and I will send them to you absolutely free of charge. Like everything else I have written, they aren’t copyrighted, so you can feel free to do anything that you want to with them, including (as I hope that you will do) pass them along to others who might benefit by reading them.
Throughout these studies, the biblical text that I’ll be quoting will be that of the World English Bible (WEB), which you can find at www.ebible.org -- click on “New Testament” and scroll down to where you can click on “Revelation” and the appropriate chapter number. I selected this translation because it was recommended by a friend as being very accurate to the original Greek text, very readable in modern English, not copyrighted (so that I don’t need permission to quote from it) and available free of charge to anyone with internet access. I’ll be using ALL CAPITAL LETTERS whenever I’m quoting the text, because using a different font, a different type size, a different color, bold print, italics or underline doesn’t always come through via email, but using ALL CAPITAL LETTERS does.
I have been saying all along that we would be able to understand and interpret the Book of Revelation once we had studied the Book of Daniel – that the Book of Daniel contains a “key” (or several “keys”) to the understanding of the Book of Revelation. One of the “keys” that we picked up from studying Daniel is the Historicist method of interpretation. In most of Daniel’s visions and prophecies, Daniel was given information that started with where he was (in time) and then progressed systematically into the future from there, so that prophecy is really just history written before it happens. Using that “key” from the Book of Daniel, when we come to the Book of Revelation, we should expect to find that the prophecies in Revelation will begin to be fulfilled in the lifetime of the author (John, the son of Zebedee, known in the Gospel of John as “the disciple whom Jesus loved”) and progress forward in time from his time up until the great goal of all of his prophecy is fulfilled. That great goal is the Second Coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Daniel predicted a lot of things that had to do with the first coming of Christ; in particular, his great prophecy in Daniel 9 specified the exact time when Jesus would come, so that if anybody had understood that prophecy during those centuries, they would have been able to predict the exact date when the Messiah would be revealed, and then they would see the event fulfill that prediction. John’s prophecies deal with the Second Coming of Christ, but there is nothing in the Book of Revelation that will enable us to predict the exact date (or even an approximate date) when Jesus will return. There are no time-specific prophecies that lead all the way up to the Second Coming of Christ in such a way that when we would see the beginning of the fulfillment of some prophecy, we would know that so many more days, weeks, months or years would elapse until the Second Coming would take place. The book is set up in such a way that all of the timed prophecies within it are coded so that they could be fulfilled in a very short time, and the Lord could easily have worked out a means of fulfilling those prophecies within just a few years of when it was written, so that the Second Coming could have taken place early in the second century AD if He had wanted it to. But, as it is, over 1,900 years have passed since then, and we have every reason to believe that the prophecies in the book have been fulfilled over the spread of all that time – not concentrated in any one particular section of the time (not all being fulfilled suddenly, within a few years of when they were given, leaving a great big “gap” of time during which nothing more happened that had been predicted; nor the other way around – a great big “gap” of time during which no prophecies were fulfilled, followed by just a few years in which all of the prophecies would be fulfilled one right after another). We have every reason to believe, now, that Jesus is coming soon, because of the fact that we can point to the specific fulfillment of nearly all of the prophecies in Revelation, and there is no prophecy, left to be fulfilled before Jesus comes, that could not be fulfilled in a very short span of time indeed.
Obviously, the Book of Revelation does not predict every event that took place from John’s time up to our own – no single book could be big enough to do that! Nor does Revelation describe every event that is considered “significant” by secular historians. Many “great” events in history (such as the establishment of the British Empire) are left out; no mention is made of them. The point is not to minimize the importance of such events, but to concentrate on certain specific events that are relevant to God’s plan to exercise control over history, beginning, especially, when Jesus returns.
So, before we study Revelation itself, I want to give you a brief overview of some highlights of the history of the past 1,900 years, because nowadays not many people know much about the history of the past 1,900 years. It took me until I was a senior in college before I got a grip on the events that have taken place since Bible times, except for the events of American history, which I studied in high school. But what was going on in Europe for all those hundreds of years? Most Americans don’t have the foggiest idea. So I want to give you a few highlights of what has happened from the time of Christ until our own time, and every one of the events that I will mention was specifically prophesied in the Book of Revelation and came to pass exactly as described in the prophecies.
First of all, there was the beginning of the spread of Christianity. A new religion appeared on the world scene in AD 30 – in the person of Jesus Christ (and in His followers) – with the resurrection of Jesus from the dead, and, a few weeks later, with the conversion of 3,000 Jews in a single day, Christianity began to spread. It spread very widely and very rapidly in those first few centuries.
Then, in AD 70, the Romans had finally “had it” with the Jewish people and their independence. General Titus – without authorization from the Emperor – marched into Jerusalem and destroyed both the city and the Temple. This fulfilled the prophecy recorded in Daniel 9:26.
In AD 102, the Apostle John, the son of Zebedee, who wrote the Book of Revelation, and who was the last of the original 12 apostles, died, ending what is called the “Apostolic Age” of Christian history.
In AD 135, a false messiah – Simon bar-Kochba, whose name means “Son of the Star” – led an unsuccessful Jewish revolt against Rome, in which many hundreds of thousands of Jews died. The Jewish nation, for all practical purposes, ceased to exist at that time, and was never restored until AD 1948.
The years around the turn of the fourth century (just before and after AD 300) saw an important development. As the church had spread far and wide, throughout the Roman Empire, and almost half of the people living in the Empire had become Christians (at least in name), a lot of people began coming into the church who really didn’t understand the Gospel, and false doctrines and cults began to arise within the Christian community.
The years AD 303-313 saw the severest single persecution against Christians that has ever taken place. During this time, Christians were constantly being hunted down and killed by the Roman government, and they had to hide in caves to avoid being captured. But even then, the numerical membership of the church continued to rise. At the end of this decade, Christianity was declared to be a legal religion, and the situation changed dramatically.
AD 395 marks the beginning of the downfall of the Roman Empire, when it was split into the Western Empire, with its capital in Rome, and the Eastern Empire, with its capital in Constantinople. In AD 410, the city of Rome was invaded by the “barbarians” from the north, and in AD 476, the last Western Emperor was deposed, and the Western Empire was divided up into what later became the “countries” of modern Europe.
In AD 538, the Bishop of Rome began to put forward the claim that he was the head over all the bishops of the worldwide (or “catholic”) church. That claim wasn’t recognized by everybody for a considerable period of time; but, finally, in AD 610, it was officially recognized by the then-reigning Eastern Emperor. At that point in time, it could be said that the institution of the Papacy had actually come into power.
The years AD 636-786 mark the beginning of the rise of the Arab/Muslim power in the Middle East. Islam is the world’s newest major religion, having been started by Mohammed in AD 622, and within only a few years, Mohammed’s followers began to have not only religious influence in their part of the world, but political power as well, so that the Muslim religion quickly became the Arab Empire.
In AD 1057, Muslims from Turkey began a push to invade Europe, and they conquered most of what is now Greece, Bulgaria, Romania, Macedonia, Kosovo, Serbia, Montenegro, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia, Slovenia, Slovakia, the Czech Republic, and even Austria, coming right up to the gates of Vienna by AD 1453, before the “tide” began to turn and they began to lose their influence in most of those countries.
In AD 1347-1351, the biggest disaster the world has ever seen (since the Flood in Noah’s time) took place – the so-called “Black Death,” or bubonic plague, which killed 1/4 of the total population of Europe.
Organized opposition to the power of the Papacy can be said to have begun by AD 1384, when John Wycliffe, against the reigning Pope’s orders, translated the Bible into the common language of the people of England. Forty years after his death, Wycliffe’s bones were exhumed and burned at the stake.
The Reformation broke out in earnest in Germany, in AD 1517, under the leadership of an Augustinian monk named Martin Luther. This led to the founding of the Lutheran denomination, the prototype of all of the Protestant and Independent churches.
Another great disaster took place in AD 1755 – an earthquake, centered in Lisbon, Portugal, which was felt over nearly 1/4 of the earth’s surface, including the entire continent of Europe and the northern half of Africa. Over 50,000 people died in Lisbon alone, and probably several million all together. No earthquake since then has had such a widespread effect on the surface of the planet.
By AD 1798, a new thrust to take the Gospel of Jesus Christ to all the peoples in the world had begun; we refer to the period from 1798-1914 as the “Missionary Age” in Christian history. World War I (1914-1918) and World War II (1939-1945) put a “damper” on this effort, and, although missionary work still continues, there are now many more people living in countries that are “closed” to such work than in countries that are “open” to it.
That’s a really quick overview of some of the events that have taken place in the past 1,900 years (all of which were prophesied in the Book of Revelation); as we go through these “Studies,” we will learn more about each of these events and many others related to them.
Revelation is the most recently written of the 66 Books that make up the Bible as we know it. It was written in AD 96 by the Apostle John, the son of Zebedee, who was a first cousin of Jesus, and the youngest of His original 12 disciples. In my next “Study,” I will dive right in to chapter 1, verse 1, and begin going through the book verse-by-verse, as I did in my earlier “Studies in Daniel.”