I THE JOY of The REVELATION of JOHN - Introduction

Introduction

This is a study of the last book in The Bible. Its writing was prompted by the impression I have that too many who read and study this book, or teach from it, focus on the negative aspects of the writing. They pay attention to those passages that they understand predict many dire events to come in the time leading up to Christ’s return. For some, this seems to turn into a preoccupation and what they write and speak about becomes a cause for apprehension and even fear. 

I believe this direction misses the real message of Revelation. It occurs because the real place of literature such as Revelation in a faith community today is misunderstood.  This is due to its being an example of apocalyptic writing, which is not something we are familiar with. Therefore, we can miss what its purpose is and how it was originally received by its first readers. Indeed, Revelation is also known by the name Apocalypse. It is part of a larger body of literature known as apocalyptic scripture. Some of this has made it into the Christian canon of The Bible, some into the Jewish canon, some into neither.

Apocalypse comes from the Greek, meaning “an unveiling or unfolding of things not previously known and which could not be known apart from the unveiling.” As a genre, apocalyptic literature details the authors' visions of the end times…”(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apocalyptic_literature). Thus, by its very nature, these writings hint at secrecy, at mystery. What the writer is saying is not clearly spelled out in a generally understandable fashion. All of this is what fuels the endless round of prophetic writings and conferences which base much of their content on these scriptures.

Apocalyptic literature was developed during times of hardship for those who counted themselves as the people of God. The original writings of this nature surfaced during the period when the nation of Israel fell on hard times. This began during the 8^th century BCE (BC), the era of the Assyrian assaults on the two Israelite kingdoms. The language of apocalypse developed further as these difficulties were followed by suffering at the hands of the Babylonians, then the Greeks, and finally the Romans. These writings thus continued to appear until at least the first century CE (AD), spanning a period of some 800 years. The Revelation at the end of the New Testament is really the last major example of this literary genre.  

These books describe in abstruse symbolic language great calamities that will befall mankind in the future. They speak of judgment, wars between the forces of good and evil. There are visions of heaven, of angels and strange beasts. However, importantly, in the end, God triumphs and sandwiched between those other terrifying images are also visions of the saints, safely esconced in heaven with their victorious God.

The message of apocalyptic literature was thus really meant to reassure its readers. It was to strengthen hope, regardless of the trying times the readers were facing, be it invading forces in Israel’s day or persecuting Roman Emperors in the Christina era. If it accomplished those purposes, in the face of what the readers were experiencing, it was to renew their joy in the path they were on. We too need to rediscover the potential for finding this joy in Revelation. 

Now, this is not a new concept. If one ‘googles’ ‘joy’ and ‘Revelation,’ millions of hits are returned. However, many focus only on a specific passage, often one of the hymns found here. We need to see how the book as a whole can lead to joy.