Hi Jamse and Ellen,
Revelation is the Bible canon’s most prophetic, apocalyptic book. Revelation was penned somewhere around 95 A.D. – which makes Revelation the latest penned canonized book in the Bible. Because of the intrinsic content of Revelation – which is primarily on an end time focus, and because Revelation was penned later than any of the other 65 books that make up the Bible, it seems appropriate to your grandpaa that Revelation is the last book of the Bible. Revelation was penned by a geriatric Apostle John during his Island of Patmos exile. Because Apostle John could no longer go to the cities of Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia and Laodicea to personally encourage or admonish these seven Asia Minor city’s Christ-follower fellowships of guys and gals, Apostle John penned the twenty-two chapters in Revelation as a circular letter to be taken to one city Christ-follower fellowship to another. A God sent angel through visions revealed to Apostle John what to pen. The messages that God sent via an angel to Apostle John to pen were four narratives of sevens – starting out with ‘Christ’ being the seven Asia Minor churches’ critic, followed by ‘Christ’ being destiny’s controller, ‘Christ’ being evil’s conqueror and ending up with ‘Christ’ being hope’s consummator.
The first Revelation vision that God’s angel imparted to Apostle John has ‘Christ’ commending the virtues and condemning the vices in the Christ-follower fellowships of guys and gals in the seven cities. The city of Ephesus Christ-follower fellowships of guys and gals have ‘Christ’ censuring them for forsaking their first love – which had been in Him. The city of Smyrna Christ-follow fellowship of guys and gals have ‘Christ’ forewarning them of the sufferings that they are going to be facing – because of their faith in Him. The city of Pergamum Christ-follower fellowship of guys and gals have ‘Christ’ chastising them for permitting false teachers to remain among them – who were leading them to sin against Him. The city of Thyatira Christ-follower fellowship of guys and gals have ‘Christ’ hammering them for being followers of Jezebel – as they were venerating Satan more than they were venerating Him. The city of Sardis Christ-follower fellowship of guys and gals have ‘Christ’ encouraging them – because He knew that there were guys and gals there who have their names written in the Book of Life. The city of Philadelphia Christ-follower fellowship of guys and gals have ‘Christ’ loving them – because of their faithful obedience to Him. The city of Laodicea Christ-follower fellowship of guys and gals have ‘Christ’ spitting them out – as they were being lukewarm towards living their lives for Him. The next three Revelation narratives are prophetic. Seven seals, seven trumpets and seven bowls are used symbolically as God’s progressive judgments that portend the destiny of a world – which is planet Earth, that Satan driven evil has always attempted to dominate. Babylon is evil’s symbolic name that is next used to depict the utter defeat and total annihilation of the beast and his minions when ‘Christ’ victoriously returns to planet Earth. The majestic beauty and warm tranquility of God’s heaven is then symbolically portrayed as pure gold to instill eternal hope to all guys, gals and kids who are Christ-followers.
Revelation is very much front and center today. The seven Asia Minor city Christ-follower fellowships could be representative of ‘church’ communities anywhere on planet Earth. Your grandpaa wonders though that maybe God has an ‘arrow’ pointing towards the region of these seven Christ-follower fellowships of guys and gals – which would be today in the country of Turkey. The region that is now the country of Turkey was where Apostle Paul went to on three of his missionary journeys. Apostle John conveys having been following up on the emergent Asia Minor Christ-follower fellowships of guys and gals. Christ-follower guys and gals who are living in the country of Turkey are today a minority. Eight out of ten guys and gals who are now living in the country of Turkey are – as Muslims, professing Mohammad-followers. Your grandpaa thinks that God had Apostle John pen Revelation to indict against societal, governmental and religious evils that are exponentially escalating in Satan’s planet Earth’s beliefs, cultures and regimes. Your grandpaa thinks that too much emphasis is at times put on trying to determine what exactly God is trying to tell Revelation readers through the visions that He used an angel to give Apostle John versus at times a lack of emphasis in formulating a discipline to internalize over a lifetime the totality of God’s Living Words. Even though your grandpaa finds it intriguing to hear the speculations and the conjectures regarding the recent spate of natural disasters, worldwide economic downturn, decline towards moral degradation, global decisions that point to a one world government slippery slide and an acquiescence by a lukewarm Christ-follower ‘church’ to multi-paths to heaven, your grandpaa finds it much more rewarding to hear that there is a growing family of Christ-follower guys and gals among the indigenous Chiquitano tribe in the country of Bolivia – as a direct result of the rural resident Bible education and leadership training center program that your grandmaa and grandpaa were instrumental in implementing in 1982 in Concepción, Ñuflo de Chávez that enabled guys and gals to apply Biblical truths in their lives and to pass on Biblical knowledge and God’s saving grace and hope to guys, gals and kids in their villages.
Revelation