Book of Revelation - Haystack Commentary

the book of revelation

Haystack bible commentary

"Stacks and stacks of commentary...."

The book of Revelation may be difficult and demanding to read, yet it is the only biblical book whose author promises a blessing to those who read it. -Billy Graham

I do not read the Revelation to get additional information about the life of faith in Christ. I have read it all before in law and prophet, in gospel and epistle. Everything in the Revelation can be found in the previous sixty-five books of the Bible. The Revelation adds nothing of substance to what we already know. The truth of the gospel is already complete, revealed in Jesus Christ. There is nothing new to say on the subject. But there is a new way to say it. I read the revelation not to get more information but to revive my imagination.
(Eugene Peterson, Reversed Thunder: The Revelation of John & the Praying Imagination, p. xi-xii)

The Book of Revelation is about the gospel. The gospel is its central theme. Above all it is speaking of the coming kingdom of God through the victory of Christ at Calvary.
(Graeme Goldsworthy, The Gospel in Revelation, in The Goldsworthy Trilogy, p. 205)

And now he [John] was again to receive the Word and the Witness, a genuine message from God, which in due course was to be read aloud in Church meetings like other inspired scripture. It would in a sense be nothing new; simply a recapitulation of the Christian faith he possessed already. But it was to be the last time that God would repeat the patterns of truth, and he was to do so with devastating power and in unforgettable splendor.
(Michael Wilcock, The Message of Revelation: I Saw Heaven Opened, The Bible Speaks Today, p. 31)

The visions of the book are presented as an ‘uncovering of hidden truths,’ namely the hidden reality of God’s sovereign control of the future, of how he is going to bring an end to the seeming success of the forces of evil in the present age. (Grant Osborne, Revelation, Baker Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament, p. 53)

Revelation’s readers in the great cities of the province of Asia were constantly confronted with powerful images of the Roman vision of the world. Civic and religious architecture, iconography, statues, rituals and festivals, even the visual wonder of cleverly engineered ‘miracles’ (cf. Rev. 13:13-14) in the temples – all provided powerful visual impressions of Roman imperial power and of the splendor of pagan religion. In this context, Revelation provides a set of Christian prophetic counter-images which impress on its readers a different vision of the world: how it looks from . . . heaven . . . The visual power of the book effects a kind of purging of the Christian imagination, refurbishing it with alternative visions of how the world is and will be.
(Richard Bauckham, The Theology of the Book of Revelation, p. 17)

And why was the book of Revelation written? It was not written primarily, let me assure you, in order that people might be able to work out the date of the end of the world! That is a very grievous misunderstanding of that book. The book of Revelation was written in order that God’s people who were passing through terrible persecutions and terrible adversity might be able to go on rejoicing. It is a book that showed them the ultimate victory of the Lord over Satan and all the other forces of evil. They were to rejoice. It was written for men and women who had been in trouble, and it was meant to help them, not only people who would live 2,000 years later. And so it has been a help to Christian people in every age and every generation. If your understanding of the book of Revelation does not help you rejoice, you are misunderstanding it. (Martyn Lloyd-Jones, True Happiness, p. 88).

Revelation is the book of consummation:
Genesis-----The commencement of Heaven and earth (1:1)
Revelation--The consummation of Heaven and Earth (21:1)

Genesis-----The entrance of sin and the curse (3:1-19)
Revelation--The end of sin and the curse (21:27; 22:3)

Genesis-----The dawn of Satan and his activities (3:1-7)
Revelation--The doom of Satan and his activities (20:10)

Genesis-----The tree of life is relinquished (2:9; 3:24)
Revelation--The tree of life is regained (22:3)

Genesis-----Death makes its entrance (2:17; 5:5)
Revelation--Death makes its exit (21:4)

Genesis-----Sorrow begins (3:16)
Revelation--Sorrow is banished (21:4)

1) Revelation helps us see our situation in its true perspective. We are living between two worlds: the first heaven and earth, which are destined for destruction; and the new creation, to which we already belong as God’s holy city, the bride now being beautified for her Husband. Jesus’ Revelation to the churches through John is given to help us navigate the paradoxes built into the ‘betweenness’ of our situation. Revelation is also brutally frank in revealing the call to follow Christ as a call to suffering and even death. More than this, Jesus shows us that his victory over the enemy has blazed the trail for our victory.
2) Revelation helps us see our enemies in their true colors. Revelation calls the church, Jesus’ witness, to exercise wise discernment, lest we be taken in by an impressive image that masks an ugly and empty reality. The enemies include the beast (the power of government), the false prophet (religious deception), and the harlot (the idolatrous allure of material affluence and social acceptance).
3) Revelation helps us see our Champion in his true glory. Whenever Revelation works on us as God intends it to, we trust, love, and fear Jesus more. The purpose of its graphic portrayals of the dragon’s heavy artillery is not to haunt us with nightmares or keep us awake with night sweats. It is to direct our eyes and hearts away from ourselves, to focus instead on Christ, the seed of the woman who crushed the ancient serpent’s head and now sits on God’s throne. He is the lion of Judah, the slain Lamb, the captain of heaven’s armies, the faithful witness, the husband who lives his bride, etc.
4) Revelation helps us see ourselves in our true beauty. Jesus loves his church. Of course he is not blind to her blemishes, nor will he leave them untreated to mar his brides complexion when our wedding day arrives. But Revelation shows us the lengths to which the Lamb has gone and will go to make us the holy city in whom he will dwell forever. Christ loves his church and binds himself to her with bonds that no enemy from without and no failure of ours from within can sever.”
5) Revelation helps us endure suffering, stay pure, and bear witness to Christ. The first century churches that John was writing to faced suffering and even martyrdom. He wrote to encourage them to press on through suffering. He also wrote to warn us of the devil’s appealing power and alluring guise, helping us fight spiritual seduction. Finally, Revelation keeps us from withdrawing into a religious ghetto and keeping the gospel a secret. The church is called to be Jesus’ witnesses, fearless in engaging the culture because we are confident in his care for as long as our mission on earth lasts.
Triumph of the Lamb by Dennis Johnson.

April 16, 2020: Contemporaries keep using the term “apocalypse,” but literalist biblical interpretation notwithstanding, the term doesn’t mean what many think it means. Deriving from the Greek apokalypsis, the word means “unveiling” or “revelation.” Hence, the title given to the final book of the Christian Bible, “The Apocalypse of John,” is accurately translated “Revelation” not “Cataclysm.” Not “The End.” Unfortunately, this root meaning has been forgotten in popular circles. When the term is understood as “unveiling,” we can then ask the right questions: What does this pandemic unveil? What have we refused to see about ourselves and the precarious world we’ve built, a world that now stands exposed and tottering in the harsh light of this unasked-for revelation? If we permit this crisis to expose the fissures of our failing world, this pandemic will have served as properly apocalyptic. If instead, despite its devastating toll, we return to an obsolete and unsustainable world, nothing meaningful will have been revealed. ABC Religion & Ethics: Is this an Apocalypse? We certainly hope so – you should to