borrows much of its imagery.
But even Old Testament prophets did not understand everything they wrote. 1 Peter 1:10–11 says, “Concerning this salvation, the prophets who prophesied about the grace that was to be yours searched and inquired carefully, inquiring what person or time the Spirit of Christ in them was indicating when he predicted the sufferings of Christ and the subsequent glories.”
Our experience of Revelation in contrast to a first-century reader’s experience of Revelation is similar to how someone from the fifteenth century might feel if an American talked about a yellow penalty flag in football. Most Americans instantly recognize what a yellow flag symbolizes, but a fifteenth-century person would be mystified without the right contextual knowledge. In studying the book of Revelation, we must be diligent in our study of the Old Testament and, even so, realize there are some things we just may not understand fully yet.
This is a “revelation of Jesus Christ” (Revelation 1:1, emphasis mine). This could either be interpreted as a subjective genitive (a revelation given by Jesus Christ), or an objective genitive (a revelation about Jesus Christ). Mounce, among others, takes the subjective genitive view, saying, “Christ is the revealer, not in the sense that he accompanies John on his visionary experiences (angels play this role), but in that he alone is worthy to open the scroll of destiny (Revelation 5:5, 7) and disclose its contents”29 (Revelation 6:3, 3, 5, 7, 9, 12; 8:1). Both Beale30 and Thomas31, however, believe the text can be read either way, as do I.
The reader’s takeaway should be that this book is about Jesus Christ and his victory and a book given by Jesus Christ to the church—both the first-century churches in Asia Minor and to all churches past and present. That is the beauty of the book of Revelation. Revelation has always been applicable at all times, and at all times it is focused on Jesus Christ, who is the same yesterday, today, and forever.
There is an urgency to John’s writing. When I was a kid and heard my mother yelling from the house, “Andy, you come here right now!”, her specific emphasis of words told me how fast I should get back to the house. If she said, “Andy, come here right now” with no emphasis, I would jog home. But if she said, “Come here right now!”, I’d run fast. Revelation is a “Come here right now” kind of book.
This revelation is about things that must soon take place. The time is near, John declares. The world was at a critical point, the signs and circumstances of the times indicating that Jesus would come soon. Modern-day readers may be confused by the language of imminence. Have we seen these events yet or have we not? Are we still waiting? How long must we wait, and what does “soon” mean to John or to Jesus? We must understand the importance of the little Greek word δεῖ (dei), which means “must” or “necessary.” The sovereignty of God underpins all of this. These things must take place because God’s will must be accomplished. God’s sovereignty is a common theme running through Revelation. Osborne notes that in John’s writings δεῖ refers to God’s will and way (see John 3:30; 4:20, 24).32
But what about the timing? If it is necessary that these things take place under the sovereign plan of God, how are we to understand the phrase “soon”? Mounce writes, “History is not a haphazard sequence of unrelated events, but a divinely decreed ordering of that which must come to pass. It is a logical necessity arising from the nature of God and the revelation of his purpose in creation and redemption.”33 In light of this, we may understand “soon” in a straightforward sense. From the perspective of the prophet, the end is always imminent. The church in every age has lived with the expectancy of the end of all things in its day. Imminence describes an event possible any day and impossible no day.34 Contrary to this perspective, Beale thinks that “soon” refers to the “definite, imminent time of fulfillment, which likely has already begun in the present.”35 He bases this on Daniel’s understanding of “soon” as not the rapid manner of the fulfillment of the prophesy but its temporal fulfillment. The activities of the revelation would begin in John’s generation and had already taken place. The beginning of the fulfillment, and not the final fulfillment, is the focus of Revelation. The events described have already begun to take place.36 There is a “now” and “not yet” aspect to the prophesies of Revelation, just as in the prophesies of the Old Testament, upon which Revelation heavily relies.
There is a defined order of dissemination in Revelation. We see it in chapter 1, and later we will see it in chapter 22. The revelation about Jesus is revealed by Jesus to an angel who then reveals it to John. Beale sees the chain even more completely from God to Jesus to an angel to John to Christian “servants.”37
John bears witness to the word of God and the testimony of Jesus Christ, the subjective genitive mentioned earlier, the testimony that is witnessed to by Christ.38 John is shown these things. The word for “shown” is the Greek word ἐσήμανεν (esemanen). This word, which has a sense of symbolic or analogical communication, is nicely suited to this book and should warn us not to expect literal descriptions of what John sees, but a symbolic portrayal of the things to come.39
Blessing is promised to all who read, hear, and keep the words of the prophesy. Those who read and hear the word of this prophesy in the context of what will be described will be able to stand firm and be resolute in their faith, even in the midst of suffering, because the time is near. The suffering of the saints is limited. Revelation should not only be considered a handbook for future things, but a call to moral and ethical faithfulness. John puts his writing on par with the Old Testament prophets, expecting obedience from believers. We will see this again in Revelation 22.40 Osborne points out that the idea of hearing and obeying are common themes in John’s writing in his gospel (John 1:37, 40; 4:42; 5:25, 28–29; 8:38, 47; 10:3–4, 27; 12:47; 14:23–24) as well as in Revelation (1:2, 9; 6:9; 17:17; 19:9, 13; 20:4).41 We cannot be content with simply knowing what the book of Revelation says. Taking our cues from its warnings and encouragements, we must be faithful to deepen our understanding and commitment to Jesus Christ who is coming soon. Whatever it means specifically, the end is near, near enough that our obedience is required now. The death and resurrection of Christ inaugurated a new ethical code as well as the long-awaited kingdom of the end times, which the Old Testament (Daniel, for example) had predicted, a kingdom that will continue to exist through the church age.42
True to its form as a letter, John begins his address to the churches in Asia Minor with the common greeting of first-century letter writers, offering them grace and peace. We see Paul use the same formula in his letters. John is writing to seven specific churches in Asia Minor. These churches may be literal churches, or they may be representative churches of all the churches that were in Asia Minor at the end of the first century. In other words, the letter was sent to Ephesus first, but the congregation of Ephesus could have been a hub or representative congregation for others around it. Although there is a specific character to the warnings from Jesus to each congregation, setting the letter in a specific time period to a specific people, there is a universal character as well.43 John is giving these seven churches more than just a perfunctory greeting. He was earnestly praying that
