Hearing Revelation as Apocalyptic Prophecy
The word apocalypse simply means “uncovered” or “revealed.” But after John wrote the book of Revelation, the word apocalyptic also came to describe the unique genre of literature that is reflected in Revelation as well as some other prophetical books in the Bible such as Daniel and Ezekiel, and in the Olivet Discourse in Matthew and Mark. Biblical apocalyptic, as a subset of prophecy, emphasizes the lifting of the veil between heaven and earth in order to allow the prophet to see a fuller picture of the way in which God is working out his plans for his world.
In apocalyptic literature we often read accounts of dreams, visionary experiences, or journeys to heaven in which the writers use vivid symbolism to describe what they saw and the message that was mediated to them by a heavenly or angelic being. Apocalyptic is generally otherworldly so that when we read it, we feel like we are “lost in a fog of imagery” (Tim Mackie, “The Jewish Apocalyptic Imagination—Apocalyptic E4,” The Bible Project).
Perhaps the most succinct way to describe apocalyptic literature is to say that it describes earthly events from a heavenly perspective. Common features and characteristics in apocalyptic prophecy in the Bible include:
heavenly visions
angels and demons
bizarre creatures
symbolic imagery and numbers
abundant use of metaphor
cataclysmic events
scenes of judgment and destruction (This list is adapted from a similar list by David R. Helm in “An Approach to Apocalyptic Literature: A Primer for Preachers,” Charles Simeon Trust, 2009, https://simeontrust.org/.)
It’s safe to say that most of these things are outside of our everyday life. Sometimes you and I need something out of the ordinary to really shake up our thinking and adjust our perspective. It has to be bold, dramatic. And that’s exactly what we’re given in the book of Revelation and other apocalyptic prophecy. Revelation shakes us out of our complacency and out of what may have become a deeply entrenched way of looking at the world and our lives.
In biblical apocalyptic prophecy the secret things of God that are inaccessible to normal human knowledge about the outworking of his plans for history are revealed. The curtain is drawn back so that we can see that the powers of this world will be overthrown and replaced by the kingdom of God. We could think of it as a news report on what is happening on earth as reported from heaven. Angels and demons that are active on the earth are in full view. We see past, current, and future events in cosmic technicolor, communicated to us in the form of images and impressions, metaphors and symbols.
For some of us, the otherworldly nature of this type of literature is off-putting. As soon as we start reading about dragons and beasts with many eyes or locusts with human faces, some of us think, “Forget it. Let’s study something more straightforward. Let’s be comforted by the Psalms or challenged by Jesus’s teaching in the Gospels. Let’s trace Paul’s argument in Romans.” But we have much to gain by stretching ourselves to rightly interpret what the divine and human authors chose to write to us in the form of apocalyptic. Revelation has its own unique way of pressing us into Christ, illumining the person and work of Christ, nourishing our love for Christ. It simply won’t allow us to rest on the laurels of seasons in the past when we lived by faith and were bold in our testimony to Jesus Christ. It demands fresh obedience and boldness from us today. It won’t allow us to settle for a go-to-church- on-Sunday-and-live-like-everyone-else-all-week kind of faith. It intends to shake us out of apathy and compromise. It intends to infuse our worship with wonder.
While the creatures and events in what John has written about may seem fantastical, perhaps even the product of a vivid imagination, John wants to be clear that he isn’t making this up. He is testifying to what he saw. In fact, in the very first verse, he tells us where his visions originated and how they came to him:
The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show to his servants the things that must soon take place. He made it known by sending his angel to his servant John. (Rev. 1:1)
God the Father gave this revelation to Jesus, who made it known to John by sending his angel to John. And by writing down what he saw and heard, John passed it along to the servants of Jesus. From God the Father → to Jesus → to Jesus’s angel → to John → to the servants of Jesus. And what was contained in what was given through this chain of provenance? “The things that must soon take place.”
What does that mean? Actually, to speak this way of the age in between the ascension of Jesus and his bodily return is consistent with what is written throughout the New Testament. Paul ended his letter to the Romans saying that “the God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet” (Rom. 16:20). James exhorted his readers to be patient and establish their hearts because the Lord “is at hand” (James 5:8) and the Judge is “standing at the door” (5:9). Peter warned his readers to be sober and watchful in prayer since “the end of all things is at hand” (1 Pet. 4:7).
When we read that this book is about “things that must soon take place” and that “the time is near,” we’re meant to see that what is written in this book about the coming of the kingdom of God was set in motion by the death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus. As John wrote, the kingdom of God was spreading throughout the world as the gospel went out, and those who once belonged to the kingdom of darkness were being transferred to the kingdom of Jesus (Col. 1:13). The opposition to the kingdom of God portrayed in Revelation wasn’t merely something off in the future. It was a present reality for those who first heard this book read to them, and it is a present reality for us now.
[John] bore witness to the word of God and to the testimony of Jesus Christ, even to all that he saw. (Rev. 1:2)
John saw into heavenly realities and then, similar to prophets in the Old Testament, he was charged to write down all that he saw. He was invited into the heavenly throne room to see who is there and what they are doing, out to an earthly wilderness to see the world’s system, and onto a high mountain from which he could see the new Jerusalem. Revelation is a written record of all that John saw in these visions.
Can you imagine seeing into heavenly realities and then trying to put it into words that people who hadn’t seen it themselves would be able to understand? How would you have the vocabulary for it? You’d have to compare what you saw to things your readers were familiar with. You’d be trying to paint pictures with words, which is exactly what John does in this book.
Hearing Revelation as a Promise
These pictures painted by words in this book are intended to affect us deeply. In fact, there’s a promise in this book for those who will open themselves to be changed by what they see:
Blessed is the one who reads aloud the words of this prophecy, and blessed are those who hear, and who keep what is written in it, for the time is near. (Rev. 1:3)
Blessing, according to this verse, is first for those who would read this book aloud. Revelation was originally intended to be read out loud to the seven churches it was addressed to. It was written in such a way that when those in the churches of John’s day heard it read to them, they would be able to get its message. That means it was written to convey a message and stir the imagination rather than to trace an argument. It was written to evoke worship, confidence, anticipation, and hope in those who heard it read to them. It was written for listeners to get a sense of the big picture rather than obsess over the details. And the same goes for us. For some of us, the idea that we would not try to nail down with certainty the meaning of every word of the text we’re studying goes against our instincts in what we would define as “serious Bible study.”
We want to come away from our study with a clear understanding of every detail in our text. But studying Revelation requires a different set of skills. “It is more like studying an Impressionist painting; if we look too closely, we might lose sight of the big picture” (Iain Duguid, “Doxological Evangelism in Practice: Preaching Apocalyptic Literature,” Westminster Conference on Preaching and Preachers, Westminster Theological Seminary, October 21, 2020). If we insist on owning every detail of its fantastical images, we’ll be in danger of missing the message.
Imagine that you are part of one of those seven churches in Asia who first received this letter. A reader has stood up in the midst of your gathering to read a letter that John the apostle has addressed to your church. You’re on the edge of your seat. And then he begins to read. Very quickly you realize you have some adjustments to make in the way that you listen and process what he’s written because this is not like any of the other letters from Paul or Peter or James or John that have been circulated and read aloud to your church before. The reading of this letter is more like a dramatic performance. Everyone in the room is having a similar experience. Their perception of what is really happening in your church and in the world is being altered by the experience of entering into John’s dramatic visions.
As you walk back home past all of the Roman architecture and evidence of Roman rule, you would find that you’re now seeing it through the lens of the vivid counterimages contained in John’s let- ter. You’ve seen an alternative reality that is true reality, and it has changed how you see everything else. John’s “blessed are those who read aloud the words of this prophecy” has proved true. God has blessed the reading aloud of his word, evidenced by the way in which all who heard it read at your church are thinking and feeling, singing and suffering, worshiping and waiting. You have been blessed by it. But not merely by hearing it. You’ve been blessed because what you heard is changing how you think, how you feel, what you say, what you believe.
There is no magical blessing in simply hearing what is revealed in Revelation. There’s no blessing for those who hear it but choose to ignore it, reject it, rebel against it, or simply treat it as fodder for their curiosity. The blessing is for those whose lives are impacted and shaped by what is in it. It changes their priorities. It builds up their courage. It impacts how they spend their money. It leads them to worship in spirit and in truth. It sends them to their knees in prayer. It emboldens their witness. It takes away their fear of death. It fills their imagination and fuels their anticipation of where history is headed, and it shapes their understanding of how their suffering will resolve in the new heaven and the new earth.
The first servants of Jesus who heard what is written in Revelation were believers around Asia in the first century. It was exactly what they needed to hear in their day. But it wasn’t just what they needed to hear. John wrote it down for every believer in every century since then. It has always been exactly the truth believers need to hear, the reality believers need to see. It shows us:
the opposition we can expect to escalate
the endurance we need to cultivate
the judgment we will celebrate
the victory in which we will participate
the enemy Jesus will annihilate
the sorrow he will alleviate
the creation he will regenerate
the marriage he will consummate
and the home we can anticipate sharing with him forever.
That’s what I call blessed.
Content taken from Blessed by Nancy Guthrie, ©2022. Used by permission of Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.
Nancy Guthrie teaches the Bible at her home church, Cornerstone Presbyterian Church in Franklin, Tennessee, as well as at conferences around the country and internationally, including her Biblical Theology Workshops for Women. She is the host of the Help Me Teach the Bible podcast from the Gospel Coalition and the author of numerous books, including Even Better than Eden and Saints and Scoundrels in the Story of Jesus. She and her husband are cohosts of the GriefShare video series and lead Respite Retreats for couples who have faced the death of a child.