Bonus: Interpreting Revelation - Glorious Hope | Studies in Revelation

So we're thinking of interpreting revelation.

Let's start easy, I said to myself, let's take an easy topic.

But really, interpreting revelation is the elephant in the

room, because everyone has an opinion.

And I guarantee you that each of you have a different way of understanding

revelation than I do or than the person beside you.

Because it turns out, even though we think there may be broad

brushstrokes of interpretation, even within those

approaches to interpretation, there are differences.

And so interpreting revelation is not.

Or explaining the interpretation of revelation is not

as easy as perhaps we think.

And so we're going to be thinking about this this evening.

And by way of introduction, we'll come to the question in a moment.

But really, over the past, well, throughout all of the generations,

you can track the different interpretation styles of revelation.

The early church believed that quite literally Jesus was coming

soon.

And so as they read Revelation and as they read in chapter one and

I am coming soon, and as they read in chapter 22, I am coming soon,

they believe within their lifetime that Jesus was coming because

they understood that word soon, as I said last week, quickly

to mean that it was going to be within a matter of months or years,

as we know, 2,000 years on, that's not happened.

And the early church very quickly realized that as the first

generation of Christians died and Christ had not returned.

And that's why when you go, as I mentioned last week, to 1 Thessalonians

4, Paul wants to address what happens to those who have already

died when Christ comes?

How is this going to happen?

How can they rise from the dead?

Because the early church only assumed that the resurrection, or

at that stage, they didn't have that concept, but that this

idea of rising to be with Jesus or going to be with Jesus was

for the living and not for the dead.

And so that's when first Thessalonians 4, he explains something

of that.

Then as you go into the three hundreds of the church and into the

early the church fathers, before you get to Constantine and

beyond him, you have an understanding of this last book of

the Bible, explaining what's going to happen in the life of the

church from the time of Christ's ascension to his coming

back again.

And as we'll see a little bit later this evening, by the time you

get to the Reformation, that had changed into something that might

surprise you before then.

We come to really four divisions and approaches of how to

interpret revelation.

And so, as we saw in Study 1, Revelation is about understanding

God's through or Christ's revelation to us through that places

himself on the throne.

But it's in the throne room of God, where God is there.

God is ruling and reigning and his son is there, the Lamb who was

slain.

And that image changes as we go throughout the book.

And so what I want you to begin with is that discussion question

there in the first box and I'll try and scribble it up on the

screen.

Why have it chat around your tables?

Why you think there are so many interpretations of Revelation?

Why do we have so many?

Maybe this evening.

Well, I did give it away last week.

I said there was going to be four, but maybe that you thought,

oh, four.

I thought there was only three.

And maybe that three was pre millennium, premillennial, amillennial

and post millennial.

Well, that's only one part.

That's only about the millennium.

The millennial reign of Christ.

There's actually four different ways that don't mention

millennium of how to interpret Revelation.

Course as we'll see those ideas of millennium set into those

different ones cross over.

In fact, some other ones as well.

So have a few moments.

I'm going to write it up on the board so that those watching

will have a chance to think about it as well.

But the question is, why are there so many different interpretations

of revelation?

My microphone's going to go off.

The whole microphone is going to go down.

So don't worry, no one's going to hear what you say.

They're just going to hear a nice babble of voices just to make

sure that they know their Internet's working.

But I'm going to write up and we'll put this on the screen so people

at home can see but five minutes or so to have a wee chat

about that and then we'll hear back from.

We are going to hear back from.

Then what?

That's probably been about five minutes.

What are some of the headlines there of why around your table?

Do you think that there's.

Why are there different interpretations of Revelation?

What reasons are there.

So that.

So the premillennial amillennial and post millennial.

Millennial is the interpretation.

But why do people want those Is more the question.

Why do they want to fit it into a certain column?

Opinions.

We all have an opinion.

Boy, do I know it.

Have a beard or don't have a beard.

It's the biggest controversy of 2026 thus far.

Never mind the English elections.

Yes, we all have an opinion.

So opinion.

We like to be right in our opinions.

That's human nature.

There's very few of Us are mellow 100% of the time.

We might be mellow 95% of the time, but there's going to be 5%

of things that we will be exceptionally opinionated on.

And that's okay, because that's how we're made.

And as the moderator of Presbytery, Kenny Hanna, as he was

installed in March, said to prestree, we need to learn to disagree.

Well, that we can disagree, but that doesn't mean we don't have

to talk to each other, because we only disagree on 3, 4, 5% of things

because of opinion.

So opinion of how we see the world will shape how we interpret

revelation.

What else?

So, yes, the language of revelation, it's not helpful, is

it?

We know that seven heads, in fact, the number seven, full stop.

So there's a lot of things there.

Is it simply repeating itself?

Is it something new?

What is this?

How do we interpret the language and the imagery?

So language and I guess there by default.

And how we understand that from our perspectives will then mean

how we interpret revelation.

And so if you're into the fantasy novels of Narnia or Lord

of the Rings, then you have a different way of looking at these

things.

If you read those books and enjoy those books than someone who

likes Anne of Green Gables, because the two are not alike.

And so you have a different mind of how you approach it.

I'm going to use that.

I'm going to be bold.

Might get in trouble for this one, but I'm going to put it up anyway.

Politics, Very political to interpret revelation a particular

way because it justifies your actions.

So politics.

Revelation has been used in politics.

Who remembers George W. Bush coming out and talking about Gog

and Magog at the time of.

What was it?

His father, actually, maybe in the Iraq war.

I can't remember one of the Bushes.

Everyone was going, what's Gog?

And Magog?

Turned out he was using Revelation to back up whatever it

was, whether it was Iraq or whether it was 9, 11, going into

Afghanistan after Osama bin Laden.

So politics.

People interpret revelation because it suits the political agenda.

They want to bring a certain group of people with them.

Any other reasons why there are so many?

Just personal opinions.

The language of revelation means that we're all looking at it

differently.

And then politics.

Anything else?

Well, we'll go, yes.

Outside influences, in what way?

Yes, yes.

So I will come to.

Whenever we look at the four interpretation approaches, we'll

see that one in particular has used media to propagate its message

and therefore has become the one that is more Widely understood

because the most amount of money has been poured in to distribute

it.

And so, yes, outside influences, popular approach.

And simply what nowadays, what comes up in your algorithm, as they

call it.

You know, you watch it once and then you're going to get 10 videos

like it if you're on YouTube or things like that.

Yes, church tradition.

Church tradition and influence how they have interpreted it.

And each church, of course, will have its conviction, its denomination

will have its conviction on how it interprets Scripture and in

particular how it interprets Revelation.

And you see, to interpret Revelation, we have to do a little

bit of work on biblical interpretation.

And so we have to understand what it means to interpret the Bible,

because Revelation isn't the only hard book of the Bible.

Daniel and as I said last week, Song of Songs or Song of Solomon,

I mean, it's great for Valentine's Day verses on cards,

but it's hard to understand because of the imagery that it uses.

And so there are certain parts of scripture that are easy to understand

because quite literally it says, it does what it says on the

tin.

But then there's others that we see the prophets perhaps in their

imagery.

And then of course, Revelation, even Jesus comes out

with some lines and you're thinking, what on earth does that

mean?

I mean, we've looked at a few things in Revelation or in Exodus,

and it's kind of like, what on earth does that mean?

That's me on a Monday morning trying to think of what's going to

happen by the time time Sunday rolls around.

And so there's two portions of Scripture that help us with understanding

biblical interpretation.

And the first is that we must believe in truth.

We must believe in the truth of scripture because.

Oh, I'm in the wrong box.

Actually, that's not.

Don't have the right one up here.

Sorry.

Soon change that.

I'm going to show you now the that fact fanciness of all of this.

All you do is that this behind the curtain, Just like that.

There it is supposed to go through, Get it down, let's see inside,

because that's.

So put that here and we'll write truth again.

And this is what Paul writes to Timothy about the truth of scripture

and its purpose.

All scripture is breathed out by God.

And whenever I read that, I think of a cold morning when you

go out and you can see your breath.

It's a physical outcoming of the very breath of life.

It's breathed out by God.

And it is profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction,

and for training in righteousness.

So that all of humanity may be complete and equipped for every good

work.

So all scripture, every genealogy, every hymn and song, every

bit that we understand and every bit that we don't understand,

we must know is truth.

And that's where biblical interpretation be begins.

It is truth.

And so to view it like this, as we look at the truth, then we

go to the end of where we read earlier in Revelation 22, if it is

truth, then we have to handle it with care.

And that's why we have this passage in Revelation 22 as a warning

to us that even what we don't understand, although speaking here

of Revelation, it does have an overarching understanding of all

scripture, that because it is God's word, then we don't add to

it and we don't take away from it.

And so there is a warning right at the end of Revelation warning

us of just that, that whoever hears these words of the prophecy,

this book, this revelation of Jesus, if anyone adds to them, then

God will add to them the plagues of destruction which we're

about to look at on Sunday week as we come to that next chapter

in Revelation.

But if anyone takes away, then stuff will be taken away from them.

And Revelation 22 tells us that God will take away that share

of the tree of life.

And we come to see the image of where that tree of life is as

we go to those closing chapters of Revelation.

Now, at times this verse has been used to argue for and against

particular translations of the Bible, that a translation that's

different from one before has added or taken away because the words

don't matter.

That to view it that way is not to take this verse for what it

means.

It is talking about the message of God that is given to us,

that when he says something, regardless of what structure of English

it is, if the meaning is there and the meaning is going back to

what is the truth of the original languages, then we are to

be warned not to add and not to take away.

It's not about changing a thou to the or they or whatever.

It's about what God communicates to us in his completed

Word.

And so Scripture, and particularly the New Testament is

a problem for us.

And I use this.

The word 2000 here is helpful because it is 2000 years away or

go, but it's also 2000 miles away.

Now, why do I say it like that?

We maybe understand the first one.

We know we're 2,000 years on from when these people live, from

when John received this revelation and when Jesus walked

in this earth.

So we know that as time passes, we lose those witnesses and

those then who pass it on and pass it on.

And I'm not suggesting there's any form of Chinese whispers, that's

why we have a written word of God.

But we know that it's harder for us to understand the time in

which they live.

But we're also 2,000 miles away.

2,000 miles away means we don't know the culture.

We don't know what it was like to live at the time of Jesus.

We don't know what it was like to live on a prison island for John

or to be those churches, those seven churches in Asia.

We simply don't know.

And we'll never know because that culture has never been ours.

So whenever we come to biblical interpretation, we must

remember, particularly with the New Testament, we are 2,000 years

ago from it and we're 2,000 miles away.

That means we have to work extra hard to understand what it's

saying.

And so how we understand Scripture is we read it and try to

understand what it meant to the original hearers.

And so for them, the book of Revelation made perfect sense.

They must have been familiar with everything that was presented

to them.

And as I said last week, historically they would have been

used to those fantasy style images on collages or on reliefs

that were on walls, because that was how the cartoon, the newspaper

cartoon was created back then, but painted on a wall for all to

see, where the emperor wouldn't be painted in a portrait,

but rather as an image of a lion or a stallion to show power

and strength where words couldn't be written.

The image told the story.

And so that's how we must interpret Scripture.

And that leads us then to the second of the questions.

Because there are passages that are easy for us to understand.

Well, what are they?

But there's also passages that are hard for us.

So whenever Jesus says he's the bread of life, we know that he's

not a physical loaf of bread.

Read.

We know what he means, that we need him to survive in life and in

eternity.

But what other passages are there that are harder to understand?

They might be from revelation, or they might be from somewhere else

in scripture of images or accounts that are given to us that

on first reading, you're going and scratching your head, what does

this mean?

So again, take five minutes, have a go at both of those.

What passages are easy to understand even though their images

are not the literal understanding?

As I said, Jesus is the bread of life, but we know what it means.

And what are those that are harder.

So have a couple of minutes to talk about that and I'll write it

up here as well.

So I'm going to break in here and I'm not going to ask you for

examples this time, but you know what I'm talking about.

It's not just revelation that at times can be hard for us to understand.

I can remember at university a very young Christian, she came from

a Muslim background, asked me what was the point of Balaam's D.

Why it's hard to understand because we don't think it's on.

We don't think it's fair about the slaughter of so many.

Of course that's always thrown up as a counter to Christianity and

we struggle to go.

We don't.

If we understood it, we'd be able to give an answer.

But we don't always understand these things on first reading.

And so if you're finding Revelation too hard, don't beat yourself

up because it turns out there's a lot of scripture on first

reading is hard to understand.

So biblical interpretation is not a one reading moment.

That's why I said, go back and listen again, read again.

Because biblical interpretation is about going over

it and over and over it so that you allow the Holy Spirit to

show you what it means that you can understand.

But then over the page, onto the second page, interpreting Revelation.

Well, for some it's, it's a hobby, some of it's a profession.

And over the years there's been so much sense and there's been

so much silliness as well.

And so Revelation is particularly the harder one because

it's full of imagery from beginning to end.

Even the letters to the seven churches demonstrate imagery that

on first reading isn't always easy to understand.

And we've already said on Sunday evenings that the book of

Revelation is linked to the book of Daniel.

You'll have noticed how many passages are similar.

And in Daniel we're told that that's sealed.

What's given to Daniel is sealed.

It means it's locked down.

But what did we learn quite quickly in the Book of Revelation?

Well, Revelation's not sealed, it's given to us.

It's a message for the seven churches and the churches in all

time to pay attention to.

So this is not a secret to us.

And there's no mistake as to why this series has been called Glorious

Hope.

Because the book of Revelation is to be a blessing.

It is to be a hope filled book.

And I wonder, did you notice what John receives at the end there

in chapter 22.

Look at what Jesus says in verse 16.

He says, I, Jesus, have sent my angel to testify to you about

these things for the churches.

Revelation is given to the church.

It's not supposed to be an evangelistic book.

It's supposed to be for the church.

It's supposed to be for us so that we will have glorious hope in

Jesus Christ.

Now, any pastoral preaching of Revelation will be that, but it will

also give the warning that if you don't follow it, then you're

lost forever.

And of course, that's how we will pastorally preach it.

But the message is to encourage us not to frighten the

world, but it's for the church, so that the church will take

seriously what is to happen, so that we will be active and we

will do the work that the Lord has called us to.

So, so how do we understand it?

What have been the approaches to interpreting Revelation?

Well, I have given you a table, and you notice that it's blank

because this is where, if you choose to, you're going to do a little

bit of work in writing things down.

And the first approach of interpreting Revelation is called

the pre.

Terrorist, or if you're American, the pre.

Terr.

Preterist.

The preterist.

Now, the preterist comes from the Latin word praetor, which means

beyond or it means before.

And so the preterist view of the book says it's already happened,

that most of it has already happened.

So what they're saying is it's complete, everything in Revelation.

And the most radical of preterists or preterists will tell

you that it is complete and that all came about at the destruction

of the temple in 70 A.D. so that's the marker that they put complete

at 70 A.D. 70 and the destruction of the Temple, That's

what they say happened.

And there are still some people today who will have this view.

And again, why do they have this view?

Because of the word soon.

Well, Jesus said he was coming soon.

And so in our interpretation, soon is in just a matter of moments.

And what was the first major incident to happen?

The destruction of the temple.

And so this was the completion of everything that was told in terms

of judgment and in terms of the reign of Christ.

And so as we discover with a lot of these, even within preterists

or preterists, there's subdivisions.

And so some will be hardline and say, it's closed, it's done,

we're just living now.

And others will say that.

It's maybe not all there yet, there's still Some wee bits to happen.

Now, if you're looking to where, where does the millennium

and all fit into this?

Well, actually, post millennialists would probably fit

into that, because post millennialists believe that we are

building heaven on Earth.

So you can only build heaven on this present earth if everything

has been done.

And so if you're wanting to take the millennium interpretations

and see where they fit, well, then within preterists or preterists,

you will have that post millennium view.

The second approach is the church historical approach.

Now, this approach was very popular at the time of the Reformation.

And what the church historical approach is, it's a timeline.

And so what this timeline is saying is that we are somewhere in

Revelation.

So Revelation is a timeline, and as the Church today, we are somewhere

on that timeline.

Guess where every generation thinks we are at the end of it.

And they've been saying that for 500 years that we're at the end.

So we're in chapters 16 and 17, waiting for 20, 21 and 22.

We know it's not the worst yet.

There's worse to come.

That's chapter 19, but we're pretty far up the scale.

And so every generation has disagreed as to where the generation

before them were.

So, you know, if the generation said we're chapter 16,

well, then the generation after them pushed them back to chapter

17 because they said they were in chapter 16.

And so it's just a bizarre thing.

I don't think there's anyone holds to this.

I'm sorry, if you do and you're here tonight, don't think

there's anyone.

I've never met anyone who holds to this church historical approach,

that the history of the Church from the Ascension of Christ, who

is coming back, is on a timeline within Revelation, that

it is unveiling as we speak.

So that's the church historical.

So every generation believes it is at the end of the timeline,

and all they're waiting for is Jesus to come back, because everything

that's bad has happened then.

The fourth one then is the futurist approach.

Futurist is that it's all to happen yet, so that it's still to

come.

And this was really propagated in the 18th and 19th centuries under

what is known as dispensationalism.

And so futurist says all to come, and it fits in with dispensationalism.

Dispensationalism is this idea that there's seven key moments in

history.

So a bit like the church historical view, but there's seven

key moments in History that are all detached from each other.

It's not one flow of history that God has worked in these moments

differently.

And so therefore there's another moment where he will work

differently again.

And Dispensationalism in the 18th, 19th century comes from a man

who actually founded the Plymouth Brethren, Darby, and he

propagated this.

And then Schofield in his study Bible brought all of that in

as well, as Charles Ry put it in his study Bible as well.

And this, as I've said, is the pre millennialist.

That believers will be taken out of this world in a word called

the Rapture, by the way, doesn't appear in Revelation.

And believers will be taken in the rapture and then everything will

happen after that.

So dispensationalism futurists believe two returns of Christ.

Christ will come secretly to take his people, and then Christ

will come again for the world to see.

Now this is also the one that most conservative Christians in America

in that period have believed.

And with the advent of Christian radio and Christian television,

which there was less restrictions in America than there

were here and still are here for Christian broadcasting, this

method and this form of understanding has gone out far and

wide.

And this is the one that most money has been pumped into, particularly

in the current age, in the printing of books and in the printing

of materials to propagate the futurist.

Do you know what the favorite word of futurists are or the futurist

person is, or the futurist approach?

Favorite word.

Literal.

Futurists will say we are the only ones who take this word literally.

I don't say this from a pulpit on a Sunday night because it's not

my place in pastoral preaching.

But I did say to one or two, I would be telling you what I believe.

If you haven't guessed by now, I am not a futurist, but I am literal

because I think it's unfair that futurists.

The futurist approach claims the title literal because it is one,

a word of superiority that seems to want to put down all of

the others because the last one then, and this is a bit of a

clunky one, but it's the idealist spiritualist approach.

And that might frighten you.

Spiritualist, but it means that what it is, revelation is given

to the church age.

And all the church age is within revelation.

And why do they say that?

Well, the main argument is why would God give a book of the Bible

for just one moment in the life of the church that may not have

any impact on another life of the church.

If God gave this to the early church, surely it is for every generation

of the church.

And so they will say that revelation is for every generation.

That just as the story of Jonah and the big fish, just as the

story of David killing Goliath, just as the story of the

woman at the well has impact in every generation generation of

the church, so too does Revelation.

And even though a future or an idealist and a spiritualist approach

to this, which talks about the movement of the Spirit from the book

of Revelation amongst the church in its age and in its generation,

even though reading it as images, as a picture does not make

it any less literal, because it is still the word of God in the

fashion of biblical interpretation of God communicating

to us just as he does in Daniel, just as he does in the Psalms,

just as he does in the Song of Solomon.

These books are no different in their approach, given to us by

God of imagery.

So although the word literal may be with futurists, the word imagery

is not afraid to be used, or maybe as we would be challenged,

symbolic of what it says.

And so how you interpret revelation well, how you'll understand

it.

So as well as.

And this is where things.

And so, by the way, that's amillennialist, if you're wanting

to know what that is, where all of these fit.

Actually, whenever you look at church historical and futuristic,

they're kind of on the same page because they're talking about

a timeline and the Church fitting into that timeline.

And so there's a bit of crossover with some of these things,

because it could be argued that the traitorist and the idealist

spiritualists both agree that certain things have been completed

in terms of the blessing of the martyrs, in terms of a punishment

to come on people who have already died and we're not in Christ.

And so there's this coming across.

So there's no real pure line because there's crossover somewhere

in these four approaches.

Someone once said there's I'm not an amillennialist, I'm not a

premillennialist, I'm not a post millennialist, I'm a pan millennialist

because I believe it'll all pan out in these end.

I'm not so sure that's the best approach to take.

But God is doing something.

If there's threads that link all of these in some way or shape

or form, it's clear then that God is at work.

And just because I fit in more comfortably with one doesn't mean

I'm going to fall out with someone who falls more comfortably

in with another.

Because you, like I, have been shaped and conditioned.

Either a historical approach, as was said one of the other pages,

your church tradition, or maybe by mentors or those who influenced

you in the field.

They put a book in your hand and all of a sudden you read it.

And because you believed it came from a trusted source, you didn't

question it, you just took what they said and believed what

they believed.

Revelation is not a book to be fallen out over.

Because there's many people who will approach Revelation and

say, well, what's the 666?

Who's the beast?

Who are the two witnesses?

They'll ask those kind of questions.

But yet, as we discovered last week, those are maybe the wrong questions

to ask in an approach of revelation.

Because the revelation is the revelation of Jesus Christ.

And what does he say right at the end?

I give this to the church.

And so as we look at these different approaches to interpretation,

if you believe one of these four, you're not going to be condemned

to hell.

This is not a salvation matter, this is an interpretation

matter.

Because each one will be convinced and convicted of the risen

Lord Jesus Christ who is coming soon.

So as much as a futurist will think about all to come, so an idealist

and a spiritualist will also agree that there is yet to come.

It's only that the pre terrorists that say no, it's not

yet to come because it's all complete, but yet they will overlap

on certain other things.

And so we don't fall out over it because the interpretation of

the Word of God and how the Spirit leads.

I'm very happy to tell you that for about the first 25 or 30

years of my life I was a futuristic because I went to meetings

where that was propagated.

People like Barry Smith who came across from New Zealand and

who told us about the microchip in our wrists and the credit

card and do you remember the plastic money he talked about?

And all of a sudden the Northern bank released the plastic

fibers.

Oh, that was it, we were done for and we're still here.

I grew up with that.

I grew up with a wall chart of dispensation of the dispensations

on the wall.

I asked my mother for it the last time she was here, hoping it

was somewhere still up in her attic, but she said she threw it

out.

That wasn't anything to do with me or any theological conviction.

She just didn't have room in her new house from the old house,

which had far more walls But I grew up with that.

And in fact, if I'm truthful, it's probably only when I was in

Malawi between 2013 and 2018 that I was drawn to this because

I sat down with men every Wednesday for a Bible study and all

we did was read a chapter at a time.

You had Southern Baptists, you had Korean Presbyterians, you had

white Africans and whatever tradition they grew up in, Pentecostal

or Presbyterian.

And then you had me coming into it another guy from the Netherlands

or sorry, from Switzerland.

And we chatted it out and we disagreed, but we kept coming back

because what was more important was discovering Jesus in

revelation rather than being entrenched in whichever approach

to interpreting we came to.

And so the last two questions.

And it's gone 9 o', clock, but we'll take a few minutes for these.

But the last two questions are there not to divide, but in a spirit,

spirit of respect, saying, well, which interpret style are you

firstly, more comfortable with and be most influenced by?

And by the way those two could be different as I've just.

I was most influenced by the futurist, but actually when I thought

about it and studied it, I fitted more into the idealist, into

the spiritualist because of how I understand scripture is to

be interpreted.

And then we'll come to that question that I promised you.

Well, what questions does this raise for you?

And maybe we will see if there's any of those questions this

evening and we'll take notes.

So take a couple of minutes because we do want to pray and we

do want to finish in good time, but that's where we are.

Have a go at those questions.

Which of these styles are first of all, are you most comfortable

with?

And secondly, most influenced by.

So be brave, don't be afraid.

Because the only way that we can truly respect one another is

by being open and honest.

And let's be this group of the church that begins that so that it

can ripple out as well.

So have a go and we'll see how we go.

I just, I want to get us time to pray and yeah, just to be done.

Don't worry, I'm not going to check at the door Mark which column

you're in.

Don't panic.

Maybe we should start doing that on communicable classes.

If you have disagreed at your table, that's okay.

Don't fall out over it.

It's not worth.

Is not worth it because the book of Revelation, whichever one

you fit in, must be and is about Jesus and the glorious hope

that we have as his People.

Now, what we will do, I mean, I will say is that, you know, that

that last thing, you know, what questions does this raise for

you?

Because I'm not about to say I'm going to answer them, might be

able to, as I did last week, but, you know, what questions does

it raise now?

Maybe somebody said, well, can I stay in a church whenever the minister

believes that.

What questions does it raise?

Why is it so difficult to understand?

That's a very good question.

But it's not just revelation, as we thought earlier tonight.

There's other passages of scripture that are different.

And again, it comes back that we are 2,000 years and 2,000 miles

away.

You go back into some of that stuff in the old testament, we're

4,000 years and 2,000 miles away.

It all happened.

All we have to believe is what the prophet says, that his ways are

higher than our ways.

Clearly this was understood by the churches who were facing that

persecution by Domitian, the emperor after Hero's retribution.

And so clearly it meant something meaningful to them.

We will have to do our best to see how it's meaningful to us because

it's not a book to stop us, it's a blessing.

Sorry, doesn't give you an answer that we would like, but it's

the best that we can do.

Great.

That's a job well done.

Then if there's no other questions, Fantastic.

Go home now and have my cup of tea.

I'd say we're not here next week, but the week after.

We're actually going to be thinking of the language of revelation,

thinking of words, but because as we know, it is the revealed word

of God.

Word with a capital W. Word with a small W. So we'll be thinking

about the language and the words of revelation, what they mean,

what are the significance, particularly the ones that are repeated

throughout the book and be looking at that.

So what I'm going to do is I'm going to pray.

Then give us a second or two, we're going to cut the live stream

and then we'll take some.

So let me lead us in prayer at this point.

Our Father God, we have, if we're honest, worked hard tonight

to think through some of this stuff and how it all fits into the

great interpretation of your word.

For to simply take revelation on its own without thinking of it

as part of the canon of scripture, do it a disservice and

do us a disservice.

So, Father, as we apply biblical interpretation to what's

easy to understand or perhaps maybe a wee bit harder help us to

know that it's the same model by which we approach revelation by

looking to you as the God who will reveal.

And whichever of these approaches of interpretation we fit

into, Father, that's not what defines us.

What defines us is Jesus Christ.

And so as we read revelation from whichever perspective, may we

know Christ more and more so that we may know his blessing and

the great hope that he gives us for today, so that we may face

to have an assurance home in heaven.

So indeed take your word, Plant it deep within our hearts.

We pray in Jesus name.

It.