Dale Ralph Davis, a theologian, professor, and pastor wrote a persuasive journal article involving the book of Revelation entitled Relationship Between the Seals, Trumpets, and Bowls in the Book of Revelation. In this article he lays out his thesis as ‘Each of these series of judgments [the Seals, Trumpets, and Bowls] is primarily sequential to the preceding one(s), but that the end of each series is parallel to the end of the other series (i.e., that the sixth and seventh seals, the seventh trumpet, and the seventh bowl are parallel to each other).” He deems this view at the end of his article as a “Successive-Final” view. Davis is taking two views of Revelation, the sequential view, and the parallel view, and joining them together to creative the successive-final view that he and other theologians hold to. He makes this point in his article by walking through the evidence for each piece of his view. He begins with the evidence for the sequential view, where he mentions five points that he believes backs up his view. First, as the book of Revelation progresses, the intensity of the judgments does as well. Which we can see through the judgment from the seals being ¼ of the people and the judgments of the trumpets being ⅓ of the people. Second, the differences in the sequence of the series. For example, the fact that both the fourth trumpet and the fourth bowl deal with the sun, but in different ways. His third and fourth point involve the contextual clues that show
According to this view, the events in Revelation are not tied to any specific events historically or in future. It reduces John’s prophesies to a one simple ‘big picture’ idea about the continuing struggle between good and evil (Gundry, 2012). Though there is some truth to this summary, the idealistic approach is heading towards the mindset that Boxall warned his readers about. The idealistic view seems to emphasize the analogy aspect of Revelation, as if it was only written to hold devotional value. This approach would be good to use to gain a simple understanding of the overall theme of Revelation, but should not be the sole perspective used to interpret the book.
Comparing and contrasting different written works is a key aspect to discovering truths about the Christian Bible. When we compare and contrast canonical books, we can learn many things about the theology and context in which these books were written. Today, we will be comparing two books from the New Testament: Hebrews and Revelation. While Hebrews is often referred to as an epistle, it is actually more similar to a sermon. Revelation is a book that describes a supposed “vision” from the author John. John wrote this vision down on the instruction of a heavenly figure. While we compare these books, we will specifically focus on their relation to Judaism and their positions on Judaism. We will examine three major difference and/or similarities: Their views on the relevance of Jewish History, the superiority of Christ, and, the Second coming of the Messiah.
John, the proclaimed author of the Book of Revelation, writes intricately about the events that will transpire when the end of the world has come. John expresses messages to seven churches, heaven’s activities, and the Lamb opening seven seals. He depicts the consequences following the sounding of seven trumpets and the pouring of seven bowls. John mentions numerous times that humans will be judged at the throne for their actions. He stresses the penalties of humans who will not proceed to heaven, but will instead die a second death. He describes heaven’s wondrous beauty, and how Jesus himself, promising he will return to Earth soon, verifies that these words are true.
In chapter 5 of the Book of Revelation, we see Christ enter John’s vision in the form of the slain lamb, a picture of Christ sacrifice (Rev 5:6). In the ‘new song’ of the saints, the lamb is said to have “ransom[ed] for God saints from every tribe and language and people and nation’ (5:9) and, later in the chapter, that “…every creature in heaven and on earth…” now sings praise to the lamb (5:13). These verses speak of God’s victory already having been fulfilled in Christ’s sacrifice in a way that leaves the reader with a vision of the eschatological hope of the Christian faith as being both fulfilled, but yet to be completed, a conception which falls within an inaugurated understanding of eschatology. As such, the ‘end of the world’ in Revelation can be considered as having already occurred in Christ’s death as evil was defeated and the New Creation initiated, while simultaneously not complete as the forces of Satan; the beast, the false prophet, and the harlot, still function in the cosmology of the First Creation. This understanding of the eschatological reality is an important aspect of John’s text, as it is through this that he is able to identify the dangers to the Church as well as encourage and strengthen its faith.
To determine whether the preterist or the futurist interpretation of Revelation is the most accurate, it is essential to examine the
The book of Daniel and the Revelation are counterparts of each other. They should be studied together as to get the whole picture of God’s redemptive plan, world’s history, the future of the world, God’s victory over evil at the end of the world, and a glimpse into the new heaven and the new earth. Even if these two books are different, many parts of the books talk about the same event of world’s history in which we are about to find out. In this essay, I will show how the book of Daniel is related to Revelation and then how John uses the imagery of Daniel. First of all, let us look at the introduction to the books of Daniel and Revelation. I will
Throughout the book of Revelation, we see through Johns visions how God will fulfill his promises in the second coming. He beings the chapter by saying, “Just as God fulfilled his promises in the first coming of Jesus, so he will fulfill his promises about his second coming. Jesus will come again and complete God’s eternal plan of salvation; he will introduce the perfected kingdom” (147). At the end of Revelation, we see a glimpse of how magnificent the second coming of Christ will be. Those who are saved, will never experience pain, sadness, or death ever again; Christians will be reunited with the Father. While all of this is yet to come, we must remain faithful to God and anticipate his second
This term paper will attempt to compare specific biblical passages from the book of Ezekiel to specific passages in the book of Revelation. These passages are comparable due to their similar use of language, visions, and symbolism.
The Book of Revelation is the final book in the Bible. It is essentially how the end of the world will happen. Only five chapters are examined throughout The Stand. The Letters to the Churches of Asia are letters to each of the seven churches that
On one hand, some believe that the Book of Revelation was the message from Jesus Christ’s which was sent directly to Christians of the first century to comfort them in a time of conflict and struggle. On the other hand, some comprehend the book of Revelation in another way—They argue that the Revelation was not written only for Christians in first century, and the original purpose was not to console their pain. It’s also important to explore these different approaches to interpret the Revelation. The first kind of view which I hold is called the Preterist view. And the other view which considers Revelation to be fulfilled in past history is called the Historicist view. Historicists would “see Revelation as predicting the major movements of Christian history, most of them have been fulfilled up to the time of the commentator.” According to this description, the historicist interpreters regard the purpose of the Book of Revelation as predicting a part of the future (which in this case means after the1st century). Different commentators in different time interpreted the Book of Revelation in different ways, but all of them only considered the history before the time when they studied it. But if Jesus Christ was to show the future, why did he just show a part of it rather than the whole Christian history? To answer this question, a new school called the futurist view emerged. “The futurist view
1. The central vision of Revelation is found in chapters 4-5. (a) What is the
The book of Revelation, written in c. 95 A.D. by John the apostle, was written to Christians who were facing increasing hostility from the Roman Empire, which was beginning to enforce the cult of emperor worship. John had been exiled to the island of Patmos for his activities as a Christian missionary. The book of Revelation is considered apocalyptic literature, a kind of writing that is highly symbolic, but the book itself provides a number of clues for its own interpretation. There are several purposes of the book of Revelation, including encouraging believers by showing the final outcome of God 's plan, showing the fulfillment of Old Testament prophecies, and revealing Christ in all his glory. John writes to encourage the faithful to resist the demands of emperor worship and hold fast to God 's promises: that the final showdown between God and Satan is imminent, the believers are sealed against spiritual harm and will be vindicated when Christ returns, the wicked will be forever destroyed, and God 's people will enter an eternity of glory and blessedness. In this vision that John receives, he is shown many things about the final judgment to come and the establishment of the Messiah 's kingdom. The vision begins with Jesus giving a command for John to write letters to seven churches addressing problems that are common to most churches across the world (chapters 2-3). Chapter 5 introduces a book, or scroll, with seven seals that represent seven judgments. This begins the
Historical context and biblical allusions are crucial to the interpretation of the Book of Revelation as seventy percent of the content found in the Book of Revelation is a parallel to the
These judgments will serve to punish sin and bring the nation of Israel to repentance. “…the Lion of the tribe of Juda, the Root of David, hath prevailed to open the book, and to loose the seven seals thereof… And I saw the seven angels which stood before God; and to them were given seven trumpets… And I heard a great voice out of the temple saying to the seven angels, Go your ways, and pour out the vials of the wrath of God upon the earth” (Revelation 5:5, 8:2, 16:1). Each of these groups of seven objects introduces the next, thus, they are connected. The first four of the seven seals are the Apocalyptic horsemen and cause the introduction of the Antichrist, warfare, famine, and plague and more of the second and third, respectfully. The fifth seal talks about the martyrs of Christ who were killed for their faith during the End Times. The sixth seal is God’s justice for the martyrs of the fifth seal, as it causes great natural disasters, mainly an earthquake. The seventh seal reveals the seven trumpets, the next judgment. The result of the first trumpet is hail and fire, the second is a disruption of the oceans, the third affects rivers and lakes, the fourth darkens the sun and moon, the fifth is a plague of locusts, the sixth is the death of a third of the earth, and the seventh calls forth seven angels who have the seven bowls. The first bowl causes sores, the second causes death of all sea-dwelling life forms, the third changes the rivers to blood, the fourth causes the sun to intensify it’s heat, the fifth, darkness, the sixth, the drying of the river Euphrates and the assembling of the Antichrist’s armies, and the seventh causes an additional earthquake with
Chafer states that "the Book of Revelation cannot be understood apart from all preceding prophecy, nor can the preceding prophecy be understood until it is traced for its consummation to this