INTRODUCTION TO THE BOOK OF REVELATION
In view of recent events in the Middle East and Europe, I thought, now would be a good time to consider the book of Revelation, the last book in the Bible. It is a challenging book and yet it promises blessing to the responsive reader who listens to and applies its content ( Revelation 1:3 ). It is also a debated book with various interpretations depending on how you approach the content. I will consider it from a futurist perspective, which is based on John writing the book after the destruction of the temple in AD70 and taking the content literally, while accounting for the many symbols used within it. Some historical context is helpful to grasp its significance to the original audience of seven churches in Asia Minor, addressed in chapters two and three. The apostle John was exiled to the island of Patmos (1:9), which was used as a prison by the Romans, because of his faith in and testimony about Jesus Christ. This took place when Domitian was the Roman ...