Bulletin 4: Revelation - Partly Unwrapped Apocrypha
Universally, it seems impossible for many contemporary people to understand Revelation, and there are popular speculative theories promoted by various Churches.
There has been a lot of uninformed opinion and speculation not based on credible scholarship. Revelation is apocalyptic, virtually another difficult language to learn and very few master it. There are many theories but two are outstanding. The best known relies on literal interpretation, that leaves more questions than it answers. The other I know about through Ridley College explains more through the scholarship of its Theologians. It's mainstream Anglican, more credible than some denominations, and it is briefly explained here. I can add that it's very rarely attempted to discuss Revelation in the pulpit. See NIV Rev1:1-3, a prologue.
Background: The Apostle John was sentenced to exile in the island of Patmos in the Aegean Sea for sedition against the Romans. He had opposed the worship of the Emperor, which antagonised the Romans, and paganism and sexual immorality. There is much controversy about his writing style and its correct interpretation, now taken more literally by many. Revelation is written with a specific intention for the errant Churches, that I want to explain.
The seven Churches in Asia Minor (Turkey) were mostly very prosperous (trade) and often lacked Christian loyalty. That takes quite some effort even today as we often don't need Christ through having enough security through wealth, without God's help some say. This is a message for the cold and luke-warm people of today.
John had been a strong opponent of paganism and the popular State religion, the worship of the Roman Emperor. It competed with and undermined Christianity's development. It is hoped that everyone can understand the very difficult political situation faced with the Roman suppression, called the Beast.
John was exiled during Emperor Dominitian's reign. After his death John was returned to the mainland where he resumed his mission with the Churches under better circumstances.
—————————————————————————————————————————————————John's intention was to communicate with the seven Churches, a list of grievances about their backsliding, but also praise the good that had been done -Rev 1:4-6. He wrote to not seem seditious to the Romans because they were unable to understand it. This genre was not uncommon in his era, especially with the Hebrews, but is now very seldom found. The word picture narrative was intended to warn Christians to change their ways and bring them back to God, out of their complacency. The Christians then were up to understanding John's message, but not the Romans who rejected Revelation as just nonsense, not needing their urgent attention. Today cartoons are the nearest that we have to the apocrypha genre.
Today, almost 2,000 years later, Revelation in its high degree of difficulty and confusion is often misinterpreted as a literal explanation of God's concern for the future of the world. It is obscuring the message that John may offer to current day Christians, not about the world ending, even when his main concern was for his own time and historical past. By not being a threat to the Roman authorities it's likely Revelation was assisted to survive during the tumultuous eras until today
The common misinterpretation as the absolute truth of an approaching 'end time' for Earth was not intended. Today we need not be very afraid for God loves his world that is slowly evolving according to His plan. Lately literal and mythical theories are popularized and a lot of effort has been put into engaging us with scary stories fitting in with John's stirring narratives. Revelation is quite seductive to some Christians who like a stirring explanation, not intended for us.. The popular theory lacks an understanding of the context and historical background, the culture and place of apocrapha.