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How to read the book of Revelation

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• How I interpreted the book of "Revelation"
  • Needless to say that there are many ways to read Revelation

  • These pages are not written to explain how others read the book of Revelation, only to tell you how I have come to understand its prophecies.

  • I followed the direction that is given by the book itself:

    Rev 1: 19 Write the things which thou hast seen, and the things which are, and the things which shall be hereafter;

    Revelation clearly says that some of the things are in the past, some are in the present and some are in the future (at the time of John's writing).

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  • Furthermore, the book of Revelation also tells us while things are prophetic:

    Rev 4:1 After these things I looked, and behold, a door was opened in Heaven. And the first voice which I heard was as it were of a trumpet talking with me, saying, Come up here, and I will show you what must occur after these things.

    So clearly, Chapters 1 to 3 (the 7 letters to the 7 churches) are not prophecy of the end time...

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• What I think of the book of Revelations
  • Starting in Chapter 4, the book of Revelation is prophetic

    More specifically, the book of Revelation from Chapter 6 onward is a prophecy about the unvealing of the end time

    Chapters 4 and 5 describe a scenary (God's throne) in heaven, but it is not prophetic - so I will skip these chapters in my notes

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• Overview of the book of Revelations
  • The Some prophetic events in the book of Revelation are "signaled" by certain actionss:

    Opening of 7 seals Sounding of 7 trumpets Pouring of 7 bowls

  • Some claim that the events introduced by the 7 seals, 7 trumptes and the 7 bowls are the same; i.e., these are the same prophecies repeated 3 times

  • I think the above approach is incorrect.

    I have taken a very simple approach to interpretating the book of Revelation:

    The book of Revelation is written as a straight line prophetic narative All events prophecies in the book of Revelation are taken as literal, except when symbolism is clearly used (e.g., beasts, horns, etc)

    In other words: there is no repetition in the book of Revelation.