Revelation blends three different types of literary styles or genres. This is important because if you begin to read expecting a straightforward letter as you have in 1st Corinthians, then you will leave confused and frustrated at the outlandish scenes that are described. However, if you see the entire book as a spiritual allegory or a prophecy then you lose the grounding of the book in its relevance to the 1st-century churches that it was written to. Let’s look at each of them in turn.
Letter
If you want to understand the book of Revelation you need to appreciate that it is a letter. To be clear: Revelation doesn’t just contain letters, the whole thing is a letter. It’s other things too, which makes interpretation complicated, but it never ceases to be a letter. This should be obvious because Revelation actually tells you that it’s a letter in the first chapter:
I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s day, and I heard behind me a loud voice like a trumpet saying, “Write what you see in a book and send it to the seven churches, to Ephesus and to Smyrna and the Pergamum and to Thyatira and to Sardis and to Philadelphia and to Laodicea” (Revelation 1:10-11).
Everyone recognizes that a portion of Revelation is a letter, as chapters 2-3 of the book are obviously letters, but these verses clearly apply not to some subset of the book, in chapters 2-3, but rather to the book as a whole. The seven churches that are mentioned in 1:10 are the same seven churches of Rev. 2-3. Seven letters, seven churches. What is John supposed to write to these seven churches? Not just what he hears (2:1) but also “what you see.” This means that John’s vision in 4-22 is no less a part of what he is supposed to give to these churches.
This is a significant and undervalued key for interpreting the whole book. Everyone acknowledges that Revelation contains letters, but they then revert to other genres for Rev. 4-22 (namely apocalypse and prophecy). But as I said before, Revelation doesn’t just contain letters, the whole thing is a letter. It’s easy to treat Rev. 2-3 as a kind of aside or parenthesis in the book, but these letters are central to the book’s purpose and content.
Apocalyptic
Biblical apocalyptic literature makes frequent use of symbols. Some symbols are largely descriptive, like when an author chooses symbols that are visibly similar to what he’s observed. For instance, in Daniel 7:4, Daniel recorded a vision of a beast that looked like a lion with the wings of an eagle. The lion and the wings were descriptive because they communicated the creature’s actual appearance. And they were symbolic because they also communicated its nature. The symbol of the lion implied that the creature was powerful and fearsome. And the wings on the lion probably associated it with Babylon, which often portrayed winged lions in its art.
Apocalyptic writings often contain images and symbols that modern readers find difficult to understand. But most of the symbols in the book of Revelation weren’t confusing to John’s original audience, because they were drawn from the Old Testament and from the world around them. Their purpose wasn’t to confuse John’s readers but to communicate truth to them in a compelling, memorable way.
Prophecy
Finally, John identifies his writing in Revelation as a prophecy throughout in 1:3; 19:10; 22:7-10; and 22:18-19. Many times, we think of prophecy as foretelling the future, but that is only one small piece of a much larger literary tradition.
In the Old Testament, a prophecy could be a message of rebuke to God’s people, or an oracle of woe or judgment on his enemies, a proclamation of blessing for obedience, a promise of vindication for those faithful to the covenant, a declaration of God’s plan for redemption, a prayer or conversation between a prophet and God, and sometimes a prediction of future events.
Forth-telling, which is proclaiming God’s word, rather than foretelling is really the essence of prophecy. I don’t want to downplay the future focus because sometimes it is telling the future or what’s going to happen, but it’s always forth-telling. It’s always proclaiming God’s message and calling God’s people to respond.
Message and Purpose
Of all the books of the Bible, Revelation is the most argued about and possibly the least understood. To understand the message of this contentious book, we must understand what purpose it served for the first-century readers that John addressed. Many of the readers and listeners within the seven churches of Asia Minor would have been experiencing hardships. We know this because of the numerous references to persecution that are in the letters of chapters 2 and 3. Also because John called himself a “fellow partaker in tribulation” (1:9). The message of the book is tied to this experience of tribulation and suffering.
Suffering is Assurance of Victory
John is not giving some simple platitudes to make these Christians feel better about the trouble they are enduring. And he is definitely not teaching a health, wealth, and prosperity gospel. Instead, he points these hurting people to the only source of true eternal victory, the way of the cross.
Christians are called to follow in Christ’s footsteps (Revelation 14:4). This means refusal to compromise with the world system around us. The sufferings of believers in this present age are not just unfortunate side-effects of the Christian worldview colliding with the world. Rather, it is their assurance of victory over the powers of darkness. In other words, we suffer hardship now, but it is evidence that we share in Christ’s kingly rule. There is peace in the midst of it because we know that our spirit will be kept safe in the midst of physical suffering.
By contrast, unbelievers do evil things and appear to triumph, but these actions form the basis for their final defeat and judgment. One of the main purposes of Revelation is to exhort believers to remain faithful in the face of adversity, in the assurance of final victory.
Jesus is the Lord of History
The other great theme of Revelation is God’s sovereign purpose over human history. He is the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last. He is the ultimate authority over the beginning of history, the end of history and everything in between. Throughout the book of Revelation, we see the image of the throne room of God and the Lamb beginning in chapter 4-5. The portrayal of the heavenly throne room, worship, and temple are meant to inspire and encourage us.
When everything in life seems to conspire against us, this does not affect the fact that Christ is on the throne. The trials of believers, the apparent victory of the enemy, the eventual destruction of the latter, and the victory of the church are all under the sovereign control of God. Paul’s words in Romans 8:28 are still in effect. God is working all things out for good, but the key is to allow him to define the good.
God has a purpose in human history. Since the resurrection, our victory has been assured, even though its final fulfillment is yet to come. Revelation is not meant to be a strange or frightening book. It is meant to be one that brings blessings to those who read its words and obey them. Christians can have confidence that God is working out His purposes as they await the day when their present troubles will finally be over. In the meantime, they are to serve him faithfully in the extension of his kingdom. Their labor will not be in vain.
