The Poetic skills of John in Revelation

The revelation in the form of a vision was profound and dramatic, hence the gifted writer of this book of the Bible, apostle John or who may be often referred to as John the Divine was skilful enough to utilize certain symbols representing a special type of writing called an apocalypse. John received four visions which could not be related in any ordinary language for anyone to really understand the magnitude and depth of the situation. John in his writing presents a supernatural and majestic unveiling of God’s eschatological or end time plan. It was a powerful and prophetic revelation to John. The language then had to be powerful, thus he had to find a way to adequately represent the message he wishes to bring across to his audience.

The Greek name of Revelation is Apokalypsis (apocalypse), which means to uncover or reveal; it is the revelation of things known only by God. The word apocalypse is associated with catastrophic disasters and events when the world comes to an end. The Book of Revelation is therefore written in an apocalyptic form or genre, which characterizes the use of symbols, numbers and images in the times of persecution. A part of this is connected to the ancient Roman emperor and Satan as the ultimate evil. This method of writing is also used in parts of the Old Testament; one example is the Book of Daniel.

Revelation 1:19 provides a guideline of the layout of the Book – “Now write what you have seen, what is, and what is to take place after this.” Thus, in chapter 1, Christ in the vision to John tells him, firstly, to write what he has already seen; secondly, to the things that are now happening in John’s time – the letters to the seven churches (chapters 2 to 3); and thirdly, what will come later, (chapters 4 to 22).

John states in his letter that it is a revelation to him by Christ through an angel. He was in the Spirit on the Lord’s day (Sunday) when he heard the voice like a trumpet instructing him to write in a book of what he sees and send it to the seven churches. John turned around when he heard the voice and saw seven golden lampstands, and in the middle he saw someone whom he described as the Son of Man clothed in long robe and a golden sash across his chest. In his right hand he held seven stars, and from his mouth came a sharp, two-edged sword. When John saw him he fell at his feet. But Jesus placed his hand on him telling him not to be afraid – “I am the first and the last.”

Jesus explained to John the mystery of the seven stars to be the angels of the seven churches, and lampstands are the seven churches. The sharp, two-edged sword coming from His mouth is the word of God. The number seven in the Bible means perfection or completeness.

John conveys a written message to all the believers who need to be in a state of awareness and to be encouraged. The message in each letter for the respective churches was an appraisal of the individual church, telling them where they were falling short in their relationship with Christ. This revelation was presented in the form of a letter to seven Christian churches in the cities of Asia Minor, who were appraised as follows: Ephesus – the loveless church, Smyrna – the persecuted church, Pergamum – the compromising church, Thyatira – the corrupt church, Sardis – the dead church, Philadelphia – the faithful church and Laodicea – the lukewarm church. Asia Minor, now modern day Turkey was a section of the Roman Empire. These Christians suffered persecution at the hands of the Roman authorities, for the sake of the gospel of Jesus Christ, so John’s vision provided comfort and encouragement and gave them the assurance that God was in control and the destruction of the Roman Empire, the force of evil, was imminent.

In Revelation the seal, trumpet, and bowl judgments are introduced in chapters 6, 8, and 15. There are seven separate events of each judgment causing destruction to the earth and its existence. The seven seals, trumpets, and bowls are linked to each other. The seventh seal establishes the seven trumpets and the seventh trumpet brings in the seven bowls. As each judgment takes place it will be increasingly destructive and disturbing.

The first six seal judgments:
• First seal in verses 1-2: The conqueror
• Second seal in verses 3-4: Conflict on earth
• Third seal in verses 5-6: Scarcity on earth
• Fourth seal of verses 7-8: Widespread death on earth
• Fifth seal of verses 9-11: Persecution and the cry of the martyrs
• Sixth seal of verses 12-17: Cosmic disturbance, including a great earthquake.

The breaking of the seventh seal occurs in Revelation 8 and marks the second wave of judgments, the trumpet judgments: “When the Lamb opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven for about half an hour.
“Now the seven angels who had the seven trumpets prepared to blow them” (Revelation 8:1-2, 6).

The following judgments take place for the first six trumpets:
• First trumpet of verse. 7: One third of vegetation is burned up
• Second trumpet in verses 8-9: One third of the sea and creatures struck
• Third trumpet in verses10-11: One third of the waters struck and became bitter
• Fourth trumpet of verses 12: One third of the sun, moon, and stars darkened
• Fifth trumpet in chapter 9:1-11: Locusts are released to torment people without the seal
• Sixth trumpet of chapter 9:13-19: Plaques are released to kill one third of humankind.

The sounding of the seventh trumpet proclaims Christ’s soon coming and ushers in the last and final series of judgments, the bowl judgments:
• First bowl in chapter 16:2 – Loathsome sores on those with the mark of the beast
• Second bowl 16:3: Sea turns blood and every creature in the sea dies
• Third bowl 16:4-7: Water turns to blood
• Fourth bowl 16:8-9: People scorched with fire and great heat
• Fifth bowl 16:10-11: Pain and darkness on the unrepentant
• Sixth bowl 16:12-16: The Euphrates river dries up ; time for the battle of Armageddon
• Seventh bowl 16:17-21): There will be a great earthquake and cities of nations will fall.

The Great Tribulation
In Revelation 7:4-8 after the sixth seal was opened – “And I heard the number of those who were sealed. One hundred and forty-four thousand of all the tribes of the children of Israel were sealed: of the tribe of Judah twelve thousand were sealed; of the tribe of Reuben twelve thousand were sealed…” In verse 9 speaks to the Great Tribulation – “After these things I looked, and behold, a great multitude which no one could number, of all nations, tribes, peoples, and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes…” The faithful saints of Christ will be resurrected and those alive will be taken up into the rapture to heaven before the Great Tribulation takes place – 1 Thessalonians 4:13–18 and Revelation 19:7-9.

After the great tribulation, which lasted for seven years the souls of those who had been beheaded for their witness to Jesus and for the word of God, who had not worshiped the beast or his image, and had not received his mark on their foreheads or on their hands, they lived and reigned with Christ for a thousand years, along with the 144,000 Jews, who received salvation by accepting Jesus as their Messiah. The 144,000 Jews will play an important role. Their work and witness will serve as an essential part of God’s redemptive plan to share the Gospel to the ends of the earth in the last days. This period is referred to as the millennial kingdom rule, which is literal and not figurative as some persons interpret it to be, based on to 2 Peter 3:8.

The 1000 years is to allow more people to turn to Christ. Revelation 20:1-7, speaks clearly about the millennial kingdom, a 1,000-year period four different times. Additionally, the Bible made mention in many other texts where the Messiah will rule as king in Jerusalem on the throne of David (Luke 1:32-33). This reign will take place as a fulfillment of God’s covenant to Abraham (Genesis 12:1-3), to Israel as a nation (Deuteronomy 20:1-10), and to David (2 Samuel 7:10-13). Satan will be thrown into his Abyss during the period of 1000 years.

At the end of the millennial rule there will be a final rebellion and judgment as mentioned in (Revelation 20:7-15). Satan will be released from his abyss; there will be a short battle and Satan will be defeated along with his human army. They will eventually be thrown into the Lake of Fire. The unbelievers will be judged at the Great White Throne of judgment and thrown into the eternal Lake of Fire. Heaven and earth will be destroyed and recreated and there will be a new heaven, new earth, and a new Jerusalem will be created where the Lord will dwell with the believers forever (Revelation 21-22).

Imagine no more pain, no more sorrows, suffering, hard life, hunger, sickness. Ow! Wow!

http://www.discoverrevelation.com/Rev_1.html
http://www.christianbiblereference.org/faq_Revelation.htm#
http://www.compellingtruth.org/
http://www.gotquestions.org/seven-seals-trumpets.html

Interesting inspirations as this one, and more from daily devotional – Devotions on the ROCK. The first edition available at: https://www.amazon.com/dp/1978141696 in print and kindle.

Apostle John

John is the author of the fourth Gospel, the Gospel of John; the three epistles, John 1, 2, and 3; and the Book of Revelation. In total John the apostle is the author of five books in the Bible. The gospel of John is not regarded as one of the synoptic gospels (Synoptic is a Greek word meaning “seeing together”). The gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke are called the synoptic gospels, which means that they are very similar, while the Gospel of John differs.

John was the son of Zebedee, a fisherman of Galilee and Salome who is said to be the sister of Jesus’ mother, Mary. The apostle John along with his brother, James were two of the twelve disciples of Jesus. Prior to their call into ministry with Jesus, both men and their father Zebedee and apostles Peter and Andrew were all partners in a fishing business. They were on their boat in the Sea of Galilee when Jesus called them to be fishers of men.

Jesus defined John, James and Peter as an inner circle of disciples (13:23-24). Added to this, John refers to himself as the disciple whom Jesus loved (20:2). John and his brother James were given the nickname Boanerges, meaning ‘sons of thunder’, by Jesus because of their rash and aggressive personality. This is evident in Mark 9 when they forbid a man from casting out demons because he was not one of the twelve disciples; and in Luke 9 the brothers calling down fire from heaven to wipe out the Samaritans when they did not welcome Jesus. In both instances they were gently rebuked by Jesus.
Their passion and love for Jesus caused a temporary rift between both brothers and the other disciples due to their ambitions and youthful exuberance to be seated on the right and left hand of Jesus in the kingdom (Matthew 20).

John’s account of his time spent in ministry with Jesus takes a different outlook from the gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke. One could say that John may have been satisfied that the synoptic accounts were sufficient and so it is best to provide another point of view. Is it not fair for us to get another account and thus a fulsome report of Jesus’ ministry? We appreciate the fact that John took a different approach. We may also take the view that he was inspired by God to give his account in the way he did. Written in 100 CE after the synoptic gospels, the introduction of his book is based on what was taking place in the society at the time. There were the gnostics at the time whose view was that Jesus’ appearance in the flesh was not real; they did not believe in the deity of Jesus, thus John begins: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God…” John was responding to the controversy, and what some people believed and probably still believe about Jesus. John placed emphasis on the deity of Jesus while the synoptic gospels emphasized Jesus’ humanity.

Additionally, the diversity of first-century Christians – those of the world who chose darkness over light; the Jews in the synagogue who excluded the Johannine Christians; and the Baptists who were John followers and who viewed Jesus as less superior to John, motivated Apostle John’s writing as he did. It was a community struggling to find self, so John’s ultimate responsibility was to declare the truth.

Again, John gave his report on Jesus’ ministry predominantly in Judea as opposed to the synoptic gospels, which mainly covered Jesus’ ministry in Galilee. It therefore argues that most of the events recorded in John’s gospel would be the events of Jesus’ ministry in Judea. Some important facts to note are that only John’s gospel records Jesus washing the disciples’ feet (John 13:4-16) – Jesus’ simple act of servanthood; and the casting out of demons, a major part of Jesus’ ministry in synoptic gospels were never mentioned in John’s gospel. John included the resurrection of Lazarus, the synoptics did not. The Lord’s prayer, Jesus’ sermon on the mount and the parables were not included in John’s gospel.

John’s loyalty to Jesus saw him as the only one of the 12 apostles present at the cross (John 19:26-27). John played an influential role in the early church after Jesus’ resurrection. Paul referred to John James and Peter as the pillars of the church in Jerusalem (Gal 2:9). John is found with Peter going to the temple when Peter healed the crippled man. John suffered beatings when he joined Peter in preaching the gospel in Jerusalem (Acts 5:40-42). John passionately proclaimed the truth; Jesus as the light of the world; and he emphasized Love, and thus called the “Apostle of Love”.

After serving the church in Jerusalem for many years John moved to the church in Ephesus (modern day Turkey) and became the pastor there. While living in Ephesus it is said that Mary the mother of Jesus was with him for a few years. This may be based on Jesus committing the care of his mother, Mary to John.
John is believed to have written his epistles while in Ephesus, where he spent the last twenty five years of his life. The first epistle has no personal references and indicates that it was written in sermonic style to Christians all over Asia Minor. Speculation is that it was a circular letter, similar to the Ephesians. The letter expressed, “I write unto you, little children,” which indicates that, it was an epistle.
The second epistle is written to a lady, an elect lady, who has a Christian household which is threatened by the invasion of false teachers, and she is warned against them.

The third epistle is written to Gaius, a loyal friend of John’s; Gaius is warned not to yield to the false instructions of a certain Diotrephes, who seems to be a pastor or elder of the church who has disobeyed the commands of the apostle and snubbed certain evangelists whom he had sent to minister in that neighborhood.

In Ephesus John developed a special relationship with the other churches in the area based on his letter to the Seven Churches in Asia, in the Book of Revelation. John was exiled to an island called Patmos by order of the Roman emperor Domitian. There is unsubstantiated report that during a persecution in Rome John was thrown into boiling oil but emerged unhurt. In the cave of the Apocalypse in Patmos Jesus presented the text of the sacred Book of Revelation in visions to John, where he recorded the contents in Revelation. After his release from exile in Rome John returned to Ephesus.

John is the last of the apostles to die; his brother James was the first. All the other disciples died violently, while John died peacefully in Ephesus at an advanced age between either in 98 or 100 AD.
http://www.abideinchrist.com/messages/1jnintro.html
http://www.biblepath.com/john1.html
http://www.biblestudytools.com/classics/strong-popular-lectures-on-the-books-of-the-new-testament/the-epistles-of-john.html
https://www.blueletterbible.org/study/intros/john.cfm
http://www.gotquestions.org/life-John-Apostle.html#ixzz3gIACXVU9
https://bible.org/seriespage/2-major-differences-between-john-and-synoptic-gospels

Interesting inspirations as this one, and more from daily devotional – Devotions on the ROCK. The first edition available at: https://www.amazon.com/dp/1978141696 in print and kindle.