“Jesus Christ is the great trustee of divine revelation. It is through Him that we (gain) knowledge of what to look for (during) the closing scenes of this world’s history. God gave this revelation to Christ, and communicated the same to John.”1
No human is independently qualified to unravel the hidden mysteries of the book of Revelation. God is the author of this book and it is only to be completely understood in the final hours of earth’s history. Even then, we will only be able to understand it when God sees that we are ready to receive it. Just as holy men of God wrote the books of the Bible through the guidance of the Holy Spirit, so the interpretation of this book must be accomplished through that same Spirit.
The stage is now set for the closing scenes in the drama of earth’s history. Correspondingly, the hidden mysteries of Revelation are being unrolled for our final enlightenment. It must be with much trepidation and prayer that we begin to unroll this the most important book for this serious hour of earth’s history.
The key to understanding the book of Revelation is found by allowing the Holy Spirit to guide our thinking and in the word “signified” found in the very first verse. This word means to put in signs and symbols, to signify. The general rule for serious Bible study is to look for the literal meaning first, and then, if there is a symbolic meaning, consider it. But the word “signified” tells us that just the opposite is true when studying the book of Revelation. The word “revelation” itself means to reveal. Thus, with the guidance of the Spirit, we “reveal in symbolic language.” The spirit of prophecy supports that Revelation was written primarily in symbolic language. “In figures and symbols, subjects of vast importance were presented to John, which he was to record, that the people of God living in his age and in future ages might have an intelligent understanding of the perils and conflicts before them.”2 Because this book is largely symbolic, we must follow an important rule for a correct understanding: never mix literal and symbolic. It will take a determined effort not to give a literal interpretation to certain words that tend to cause us to think literally. For example, a verse speaking about, “life,” “death,” or “kings,” may not be talking about literal life or death, or even kings, but instead is referring to spiritual ones, as we shall see in our study. Error most often results when studying Revelation because the literal interpretation is used in place of that which God intended to be applied symbolically. John’s introduction to the book of Revelation in the first ten verses of the first chapter has a mixture of some obvious literal statements as well as other verses that are symbolic. As we begin our verse-by-verse study, however, the questions concerning the literal and symbolic interpretations will be made clear.
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