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| REVELATION'S USE OF SYMBOLS |
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| Readers new to Revelation should start by viewing scenes as a whole, looking for an overall meaning. The visions are like Jesus' parables: each has a main thrust, and some of the details may serve merely to dramatize or add literary fulness to the scene. No one can find the precise meaning behind every detail in John's visions. Those who seek to explain each symbol too quickly may easily miss the meaning of the symbol as well as the grand emotional sweep of the book. Searching for a System Revelation will always attract scholars who search for the meaning behind each symbol. It is no easy undertaking: over 300 allusions to the Old Testament and an elaborate system of symbolic numbers must be factored into any explanation. History has proved thousands of explainers wrong. People from every generation - especially in the hectic days around A.D. 1000 and in the 14th and 19th centuries - have insisted the end of the world was just around the corner. Today, some believe that Revelation's symbols - statues that talk, fire coming from heaven, totalitarian economic control, massive changes in the earth and sea - come hauntingly close to 20th-century phenomena. The wholesale devastation of earth prophesied in the middle chapters seems eerily up-to-date. Yet, calamaties merely provide a backdrop to John's main thrust: followers of Christ will be made safe at last. "God will wipe every tear from their eyes, " he says (7:17). Much of Revelation remains shrouded in mystery, but the final results shine out clearly. Life Questions: Two potential dangers in reading Revelation (see Introduction) are avoiding it entirely or getting obsessed with its details. Which danger are you most familiar with? Why do we need the message of Revelation today? |