How can we read the Book of Revelation well today?

Many people avoid the Book of Revelation—either because they think it is too disturbing, or because it is too difficult to read. However, first, I would be very glad that you are reading it at all. It is important to read it as a whole book, rather than select either the high points or focus on the dark images.

Recommended Approaches to the Text

To understand the book's structure, one should note that Revelation functions a bit like paintings that make use of chiaroscuro, in which there is a strong contrast between the light and the dark parts of the painting. Its effect is not just found in the dark and light parts, but in the contrast between the two. Revelation teaches us through the contrast between the chaos of the world around us and the sovereignty of God on the throne.

Secondly, it is important to read it with the whole people of God. Revelation is unusual in telling us quite clearly the context of its reception: in Rev 1.3, we read that there is ‘one’ who ‘reads [aloud]’ this book, and many who ‘hear and keep it’. It is being read in the assembly, so that we all hear and interpret it together. We need to read with believers from the whole range of cultures and contexts, including ‘reading with the dead’, those who have gone before us, and those with different insights, including scholars.

Common Errors and Historical Context

There are some common errors readers make when approaching the Book of Revelation. For instance, when I first encountered the book, reading through the messages to the seven assemblies, I was told that the seven ‘churches’ are the seven ages of the church—and of course we knew we were in the end times—as all Christians have always believed! This approach often fails because it doesn't pay attention to the fact that this was written as an apocalyptic prophetic letter by a real person to real people who lived in a real time and place.

There are some who think that Revelation was written only to them, and has little to say to us today. But a larger group think that it was written about some distant ‘end time‘ which was not really relevant to the original audience. In fact, it is relevant to us because it was relevant to them—though we live in a different cultural context, we share with John and his readers the reality of living in the ‘in between’ times, that runs from Jesus’ death, resurrection and ascension until his return. So we share with John being in fellowship in ‘tribulation, kingdom, and patient endurance that are in Jesus’ (Rev 1.9). As with all other Scriptures, we seek to hear what God is saying to us through what John was saying to his first audience.

Primary Themes and Key Questions

The key questions we are faced with as followers of Jesus are: what in the world is happening? What is God doing? And how should respond as the people of God? These are only pertinent questions when we are attending to what is going on around us, and when we believe that God is seated on his throne. Regarding the possible answers to these questions:

• It is possible to believe that no-one is in control and the world really is chaotic.
• The alternative answer is that a powerful leader—an ’emperor’—or a powerful system of beliefs, an ideology—an ’empire’—is the answer to our questions.
• But of course John in Revelation offers a third, alternative answer—that God and the lamb are on the throne, and the water of life (the Spirit) flows from the throne to quench our thirst.

The Helicopter Quality of Reading

A key skill in reading this book (as with all of Scripture) is be able to look carefully at the detail but also see the big picture, and relate the two together. When I worked in business, this was called the ‘helicopter’ quality—because in a helicopter you are able to drop down and look at the detail, but also then lift off and see the big picture, and how that detail fits into the big picture.