Season: 22 Episode: 312
Summary
Many Christians avoid the book of Revelation because it feels confusing or even intimidating. In this episode, Shanda breaks down what Revelation really is, how to read it correctly, and why it’s one of the most hope-filled books in the Bible. She shares what she learned after attending the Simeon Trust workshop, how her view of Revelation has shifted, and practical tools for studying apocalyptic literature. You’ll also hear an overview of major end-times theories and how to discern them biblically. Grab your Bible and a notebook – this episode will help you approach Revelation with confidence, curiosity, and faith.
Intro
Hey guys! Welcome back to the Her Faith Inspires podcast where we take cultural issues and examine them through the lens of Scripture. I have a jam-packed episode for you today and I cannot wait to discuss the book of Revelation and why everyone should read it and how to read Revelation. We’re going to talk about why I haven’t taught on this book EVER, what I learned about it and how my view of it has kind of changed since going to the Simeon Trust workshop, and some tips for how to study it.
Before we get into that today, I want to give you a heads up as my faithful listeners of this podcast:
Do you want to study the Bible, read books, get in shape, drink more water, eat healthier and just create overall spiritual, mental, and physical disciplines? If so, I have a 75 day challenge coming up at the beginning of the year that is completely FREE and I walk you through it all. There will be more details coming in November about this and sign ups will start after Thanksgiving, but I want you to start thinking about it now.
I will probably do an entire podcast episode on what this challenge is and why but for now, if you don’t want to miss this challenge where I give you a bible passage and questions each day, one chapter of an amazing book each week, and all the other things I can’t get into right now, go to shandafulbright.com and just subscribe to be website so you don’t miss it. How this works is: I give my Patreon ladies first dibs at EVERYTHING. My subscribers get the information the same week and then my social media groups get it and if you’re not subscribed, you’ll miss it.
Study
Secondly, since we’re talking about the book of Revelation, I wrote an inductive study on the 7 Churches in Revelation, where I take you through the first 3 chapters of the book of Revelation. This study takes you on a deep dive into what Jesus said to each of the 7 churches in Asia Minor. I find it fascinating, and to be honest, I often think of the church in Ephesus, sometimes referred to as the loveless church, where Jesus told them they did all of these great things.
They hated those who were evil and hated the truth, but they forgot their first love. I posted last week on social media that the author’s message to this church is that you can do great works for the Lord but it must be out of love of the Lord or your works are worthless.
There is so much more to learn in these, and they are short letters in this apocalyptic book of Revelation so they follow the pattern and flow of a letter with a greeting, an address, a commendation, rebuke, how to fix the problem, and reward. If you want to purchase that study – it guides you through each church, tells you the words to look up, and the cross references for each church, go to shandafulbright.com/shop and place your order. You will love this study. I loved writing it and there is zero fluff in it.
Ok. Today, we are going to talk about:
What is the book of Revelation?
How should you approach it and why should you read it?
What are some of the end time, or eschatological, theories that are floating around the church right now?
As you can see from these questions, this is going to be a big episode with lots of information. You might want to grab a pen and paper.
What is the book of Revelation?
I am going to tell you, but I want you to know how to find the answer for yourself. This is how you do it: get a study Bible. This is my Bible – if you’re watching YouTube, you can see it. Before I read a book of the Bible, I read the information before the book in my study Bible so I understand how to read this book.
If you have a non-study bible, you won’t get this information. So I suggest having several different versions of the Bible for understanding, and a study Bible for information.
My study Bible tells me that the book Revelation is apocalyptic literature. Meaning, end times prophecy. The word Revelation, means unveiling. Apocalyptic literate, then, uses lots of imagery. Jesus mentioned some end times prophecy in Matthew 24. Daniel is apocalyptic literature after chapter 7. Ezekiel has apocalyptic literature. So does Zechariah. Revelation is all apocalyptic, although if you study the 7 churches in the first 3 chapters, you’ll see that the way John communicates shifts from language we understand to a lot of imagery and what is taking place in Heaven. I noticed this as I studied the 7 churches and that is why I am comfortable teaching the first 3 chapters of Revelation and have shied away from the others. Although, that will change now that I took the Simeon Trust training.
I want to take a look at the introduction of the book of Revelation so you can see who the author is and the purpose. Because a lot of this is revealed here.
Revelation 1:1-3 says this:
1 “The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show to his servants[a] the things that must soon take place. He made it known by sending his angel to his servant John, 2 who bore witness to the word of God and to the testimony of Jesus Christ, even to all that he saw. 3 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.”
Jump down to verses 9-11: “9 I, John, your brother and partner in the tribulation and the kingdom and the patient endurance that are in Jesus, was on the island called Patmos on account of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus. 10 I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s day, and I heard behind me a loud voice like a trumpet 11 saying, “Write what you see in a book and send it to the seven churches, to Ephesus and to Smyrna and to Pergamum and to Thyatira and to Sardis and to Philadelphia and to Laodicea.”
Here, we have the who, what, when, where, why, and how of Revelation.
What: The Revelation of Jesus Christ
Who: given by God
How: Revealed by the Lord
When: John received the revelation on the Lord’s day
Where: John was on the Island of Patmos
That’s all through observing the text. My study Bible tells me what apocalyptic literature meant to the audience of that day. Most apocalyptic literature was about the events that already took place. The book of Revelation was about things that must soon take place.
Apocalyptic literature is scary.
It’s imagery, symbolism, prophecies of disaster and destruction. Not to mention, there is a lot of end time conclusions that are really just theories drawn from this book. Things like the rapture, the wrath of God, the mark of the beast, and the millennial reign that can be overwhelming and sometimes frustrating because we don’t have exact dates and details as to when and how these things will take place. I’ll get into a few of those theories toward the end of the episode. But I want to encourage you to read the book of Revelation with a different perspective.
Last week, I realized that the book of Revelation is meant to do two things:
Give us hope that God does win; even when it looks like He’s not going to. Let’s be honest, this world is wicked and bad things happen every day. A lot of times it looks like evil is winning. Revelation shows us there is a day of reckoning where God, who is sovereign and allows Satan to have dominion over the earth for a time, says, “No more! It’s judgment day.”
Remind us that we should not fear the beast. We do not fear the anti-Christ or the wrath of God if we are in Christ. As Christians we fear the one who will throw the beast into the eternal lake of fire. We fear the one who will defeat the enemies of God and the persecutors of God’s people.
Revelation should cause us to fear God.
It’s not unhealthy to fear God. Proverbs 1:7 tells us the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge and Proverbs 9:10 tells us the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. He is the judge over all the earth and there is a day of judgment coming when the creator of the universe will hold all who rejected Him to account. We must believe God when He says that he is coming back and very knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. And we can either bow now, out of understanding that we are sinners in need of a Savior and Christ is the Savior of the world, or we can bow when it’s too late – on the day of judgment.
Those are the two perspectives Revelation gives us: a healthy fear of God and hope. That we who are in Christ will stand on the day of judgment.
So how do we approach this book?
John says right away in verse 3 of chapter 1: “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.” He knew what he saw and he knew it was troubling. This is heavy stuff. That’s why Jesus says to many of the churches to persevere, endure suffering and persecution. So first things first: you are blessed if you read it, hear it, and keep what is written in it. That means do not ignore the book of Revelation. Don’t avoid it. If you keep the perspective that it is a book of hope and fear of the Lord (not man and not Satan) it will bless you.
I want to give you some step by step tips on how to approach and read this book.
Step 1: Read it through. No one reads a letter one paragraph one day and then a sentence the other. They read it all the way through. So do that a few times. Note the things that stand out. Write down words that you need the definition to. Read it in a few different versions. Bible study is not to see how fast you can finish, but to see how much you can learn and grow in the Lord. So be patient. I would say read it three times and then get ready to study.
Step 2: What is the cultural context of the day? Your study Bible is going to tell you lots of this information. The 7 churches in Asia were the first century Christians who suffered major persecution under Roman rule. It was a time when the emperors rule and they were made out to be gods. So allegiance to Christ in a polytheistic culture could be controversial and dangerous. And for many, it proved to be just that.
Here is what Christian Heritage Fellowship said about the culture of that day and what Christians faced:
“Christian worship was spiritual and internal, it did not involve visible practice and visible objects to be of any value. This was in contrast to the Roman religion with its pantheon of god and its altars, idols, priests, rites, and practices. As a results, Romans leveled the charge of atheism against the Christians because they worship no visible god.
Also, Romans looked upon Christian worship with contempt, regarding them to be guilty of incest, cannibalism, and unnatural practices – which was the result of misperceptions concerning the kiss of peace, the Lord’s Supper, etc. Such misunderstanding of Christian practice did much to encourage contempt of the new faith.
The Jews themselves were the first to persecute Christians.
We see the in Acts with Stephen. The emperor Nero persecuted Christians because he blamed them for the fire that nearly burnt down Rome. Paul and Peter were his victims. That was between AD 64-68. Domitian was the emperor of Rome during John’s writing, which was between AD 90-96. He persecuted Christians for refusing to offer incense to the emperor. Christians suffered along with rebellious Jews who refused to pay a poll tax levied for the support of Capitolinus Jupiter. Under the reign of Emperor Domitian, Christians are persecuted for their association with the Jews. During this persecution, the apostles John was exiled to the Isle of Patmos where the book of Revelation was penned.”
Historical context matters because what was meant for the audience of that day is important to understand the text. It will not mean something different to us.
https://christianheritagefellowship.com/persecution-of-the-early-christian-church/?utm_source=chatgpt.com
Step 3: Revelation has, what I call, two sections.
The first section is chapters 1-3, and the second section is from chapters 4 to the end. Chapters 1-3 are structured as letters to the churches and each of the seven churches get their own letter. So that structure, as you’ll notice, has an introduction, a commendation (if that church gets one, there are some that don’t). A rebuke (if that church gets a rebuke, there is at least one that doesn’t). And a call to fix the problem or a warning, and then what the reward will be if they do fix it. Note the structure as you read it. You do this by looking at the repeated words. Looking at the dialogue. You do that by noticing the patterns of the letters.
John says plainly that the lamp stands are the churches and the stars are the angels of the seven churches. Some say those angels are the pastors. I don’t know. It could be literal or symbolic, either way, the seven stars are over the churches in authority.
Where the Bible does not speak about the actual prophecy, the rapture, the beast, the anti-Christ, don’t try and fill in the blanks.
You don’t need to. You can have an opinion, but if you are teaching this book, I advise you not to take hard stances on the theories of eschatology because they are just that – theories. I’ll say more about that in a minute.
Step 4: What does this passage say about God? What is He doing? Ask, what is He asking? What is He saying?
Step 5: What does this passage say about man? What are they doing? Ask, what are they saying? What is the struggle? What does that author show you?
Step 6: What is the author’s argument? If you find the author’s argument, you will find the application.
So let me give you an example from chapter 2 of Revelation. RFrom doing the Simeon Trust method during my own personal study. Hopefully you’ll see how much it helps you understand the passage and the author’s emphasis before attempting to apply this to your own life.
Chapter 2: The Church of Laodicea
2 “To the angel of the church in Ephesus write: ‘The words of him who holds the seven stars in his right hand, who walks among the seven golden lampstands.
2 “‘I know your works, your toil and your patient endurance, and how you cannot bear with those who are evil, but have tested those who call themselves apostles and are not, and found them to be false. 3 I know you are enduring patiently and bearing up for my name’s sake, and you have not grown weary. 4 But I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first. 5 Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent, and do the works you did at first. If not, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place, unless you repent. 6 Yet this you have: you hate the works of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate. 7 He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who conquers I will grant to eat of the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God.’
First, let’s look at the structure of the passage: it’s a letter. The author follows the normal pattern of a letter with the introduction, commendation (what the church is doing right), admonishment (what the church needs to fix), how to fix it, and the reward. I put verses next to each of these where I got the structure.
I also read through the entire first three chapters of Revelation over and over and I noticed repeated words as I did: Every one of them starts with, “to the angel of the church in __, write.” Most have a “but” which is a transition from one thing to the next. They all say something about Jesus. Why is it different for each church? They all end with the same call to action: “He who has an ear, let him hear what the spirit says to the churches.”
This makes me wonder: what is the author’s emphasis:
Since the author contrasts works and love, I believe he is emphasizing the “right” works about from love require repentance.
The next section I have to look for is context. Simeon Trust has us evaluate the four types of context: literary (the text before and after this appease), historical (what was happening at that time), cultural (what is pertinent to the culture of the time that gives meaning to the text), and biblical (are there any direct references to OT verses of the Bible or even ones the author had access to at the time of this writing)?
Literary Context:
Like I said above, the structure of the letter is similar to all of the 7 letters to the churches in Revelation. This is the first letter to the churches.
Historical: Ephesus was the most important seaport in Asia and was the major cultural, commercial and religious center. It was famous for the temple of Artemis, and the people there were superstitious, and their practices were rooted in magic arts.
Biblical: “He who has ears” is a reference to Jesus’ call to the crowds in the gospels but also traces back to Isaiah 6:10. The tree of life is a direct references to Genesis 2 and 3.
Cultural context: the Nicolaitans are difficult to identity. There’s not a lot known about them but there is speculation on their influence in the culture and the church.
After going through all of this, which takes a little while because I’m following notes and quotes in my Bible, reading the commentary, and looking for what the text says, I come to the author’s argument.
What was the author arguing for in this passage?
Simeon Trust wants this to be short and to the point because once you land on the author’s argument, that’s the whole point of the lesson you’ll teach or the application you’ll take away from the text. The argument I see here is this: Working for the Lord first requires love for the Lord.
If I were to teach this, I would expand on that and make my teaching outline.
I also had Revelation 19:6-21 and after looking at the structure, I found that there are two feasts of God: the supper of the Lamb and the supper of God’s judgment. There are a lot of contrasts in chapter 19: those who eat with the Lord, and those who are eaten. Those who are invited and those who are rejected because they are not ready. Those who have prepared their robes, and those who have not. Those whose names are written in the book of life and those who took the mark of the beast.
The author’s emphases is that there are two suppers of God.
The author’s argument is found in verse 9: “Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the lamb.”
When I taught on this, I thought about the other supper – the last supper. Those who partake in eating Jesus’ flesh and drinking His blood will be invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb. Those who reject Christ have not prepared their robes. And it’s not as though they will have on dirty robes – it’s that they will be found naked and ashamed – exposed in their sin rather than covered by the blood of Christ. It really is the supper of judgment or the supper of grace. Which one do you want to partake of?
So that’s how you approach Revelation.
What are the end time theories?
Albert and I talked about this a while back. There is the theory that their is a pre-tribulation rapture. This is what I was taught growing up and once I started studying it for myself I kind of changed my mind. I hope and pray there is a rapture, but I don’t know and I won’t take a hard stance on it. If you look in Revelation 4, people say there is a shift from the church age to the tribulation
. It begins with, “And after these things …” But that’s still not a big enough indication that there is a pre-trib rapture. Jesus also tells the church at Philadelphia in 3:10, “Because you have kept My word of patient endurance, I will keep you from the hour of trial that is coming on the whole world to test those who dwell on the earth.”
Could that be the rapture? I hope so, but again, I won’t take a hard stance on it.
Those who hold this view, which is called premillenialism, believe Jesus will come back after the tribulation and reign for 1,000 years. They also believe during this time God will turn back to the people of Israel to save them. So the time of the church and grace will be over and Israel will be God’s emphasis. This is popularized by the Left Behind series so you can imagine my feeling of being duped when I realized the word rapture is not even in the Bible. But that doesn’t mean this isn’t necessarily true, it just means I’m not so sure.
Amillenialism:
Key idea: The “1,000 years” in Revelation 20 is symbolic, representing the current Church age — the time between Christ’s first and second comings.
Christ is ruling spiritually right now from heaven.
Satan is limited but still active.
At the end of this age, Christ will return, there will be final judgment, and then eternity begins.
This view was held by Augustine and is the most common in Reformed and traditional Catholic theology.
Futurism is where people believe chapter 4-22 are yet to be fulfilled. I believe that is where those under premillennialism land.
So what do we do with this information?
Revelation was meant to give us absolutes in some ways and question marks in others. What does that mean? It means that we can absolutely know from the book of Revelation that:
God is the ultimate judge and He decides when it all ends.
God defeats the enemy once and for all.
We aren’t supposed to have all the answers. We live for God moment by moment, day by day. In that case, we will always be ready for His return.
Jesus said in the gospels and in Revelation that no one knows the day or the hour and He comes as a thief. That means His return will be a surprise to many and could be any day.
God wants us to fear Him and not man. Revelation is not meant to make us afraid of the enemy. He has no power that wasn’t given to him by God. God wants us to be in awe of Him and His power alone.
There is a judgment day coming. And everyone will stand before the Lord. Make sure you look for the invitation to the marriage supper of the Lamb.
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